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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25754209">Immortal Forefather</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gothfoxgirl/pseuds/Gothfoxgirl'>Gothfoxgirl</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Abusive Midoriya Hisashi, Abusive Midoriya Inko, Bakudeku Friendship, Bakugo apologizes, Bakugou Katsuki Has One for All Quirk, Hidad, Hidan is old as hell but not physically, Immortality, Izuku is an orphan, M/M, Midoriya Izuku Does Not Have One for All Quirk, Midoriya Izuku Has a Quirk, Midoriya Izuku has a little chakra, Midoriya Izuku is a Nara, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, fatherly Hidan, sometimes gore, we die like warriors</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:21:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>33,394</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25754209</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gothfoxgirl/pseuds/Gothfoxgirl</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He had his eye color. Or...One of his eyes was.</p><p>As he lay on the ground, in literal pieces, he could only watch, as he was being sewn back together.</p><p>What did he want? Why did he come looking for him?</p><p>And why did he look so familiar?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bakugou Katsuki &amp; Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki &amp; Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Hidan (Naruto) &amp; Bakugo Katsuki, Hidan (Naruto) &amp; Midoriya Izuku, Hidan (Naruto) &amp; Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Hidan/Kakuzu (Naruto), Midoriya Izuku &amp; Yagi Toshinori | All Might</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>78</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>228</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Deer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I have a discord!</p><p>https://discord.gg/fbpruSP</p><p>Also the first chap is a bit short. The next one should be out soon after this one goes up and will be short, as well.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He'd heard the rumors and the stories, even if they'd been labeled as myth. There was something that made him go search. Maybe it was the fact that his hair was a very light green or the fact that one of his eyes was pink, but...he just...wanted to find out. He was young, but that didn't stop him. Nothing stopped him. He wanted to find out, because his quirk was so damn similar to the myth. That's how he found himself on the Ogasawara Islands. He didn't need to charter a boat. He just walked along the seafloor. He couldn't drown, so why waste money and words?</p><p>When he made it to the smallest island, barely big enough for four, large, apartment complexes, he shook his hair out to help the sea water to dry from it. He'd need to wash the salt from it, but that could be done later. He looked around. This island was a beautiful forest, filled with lush greens and tall trees. As soon as he stepped onto the grass, he heard crunching and turned his head up. A deer stood at the treeline. It looked about to attack, when its ears twitched and flicked. It lowered its head, eyes never leaving his. Coming closer, the creature didn't flee. It...He let him brush the back of his hand over his fur. It had large antlers. When the buck placed its forehead to his, he felt a rush of information enter his mind.</p><p>This island wasn't on any map.</p><p>It moved as it felt a member of a certain clan being born, who had the ability to connect with them.</p><p>There was an illusion on the island, which made it undetectable to most people.</p><p>He was not most people.</p><p>The buck leaned back and stepped back, sniffing and nibbling at his slight curls, shuffling some dark grey streaks into the light, from closer to his scalp. He gave the buck's muzzle a gentle pat, before it stepped back and gestured with its head. It wanted him to follow. He did as the deer wanted and was brought to an area where the grass refused to grow. It was roughly in the shape of a circle. This must be what the book had said. The buck moved to the trees, meeting a doe just beyond them.</p><p>Small hands met the soil, as he knelt. The ground was covered in vegetation that had fallen from the trees. Moving the layer of dead and just fallen leaves out of the way, a mass of rubble came into view. Glancing back to the deer, he found them not moving forward, but they were on guard. So...The book had been right. As he reached in to move some rock, he kept eyes on them. They didn't stop him. Dropping the stone to the side, he took his satchel off and placed a trench coat on the ground, so it could dry, along with a small box. He took a bowl to the water's edge and filled it. When he brought it back, he started the long task of clearing the rubble.</p><p>He may not need to sleep, but the dark was hard to work in, seeing as he hadn’t brought any light. No matches. No lantern. No flashlight. Laying down on the ground, he tried to sleep, if to pass the time, before his eyes flew open. Some of the deer had laid beside him, sharing their heat. A doe shifting her head over his stomach. As he drifted, he traced his fingers over her muzzle and ears.</p><p>When the sun breached the horizon with sorbet hues, he continued, rubbing his hand over the head of the fawn at his side, before it trotted off to its mother. By midday, he could see a foot sticking through. He freed it and placed it on the cloak. Since he found one piece, it was easy enough to find the others. He had two arms, made of four pieces, two legs, made of two pieces, two hands, two feet, and four torso parts. Climbing down into the hole again, he lifted a large stone, coming to face a head. It was covered in silver hair that was very very very long. How it had grown in the hole, he didn't know. Picking it up, he made it out of the ground and placed it at the neck stump area of the piecemeal human body, he'd assembled. The dirt on the body was almost caked from rain and salty air.</p><p>He pulled over the bowl, which he’d refilled, and wet a rag. Cleaning the blood away from the skin was a long process, since it’d dried black and hard from being on the skin so long. The stench was foul. Rotted blood and years of sitting in that hole. When he cleaned the hands and feet, he found the nails painted a, chipping, forest green. The salt in the water helped with the blood and grime, as he moved from bottom to top. He didn’t try to get all the dirt off. That would take too long. When he moved to the head, starting to clean the blood and dirt from the face of the man, this body belonged to. That was when the eyes snapped open. They were dark pink with a purple tinge to them.<br/>“OI! Who the fuck are you?! What the fuck are you d-!” The pinky side of a hand came down on the middle of the face, effectively shutting him up and making a little more blood drip from his nose, which was staunched by the rag. Dual tone eyes peered into singular colored ones. One of them matched the man’s, perfectly.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Jigsaw of Meat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>this was longer than I expected lmao</p><p>If you're wondering how I'm so fast, I wrote down the basis for the first few chaps in the discord server I'm a part of</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>His stare pierced the man’s, voice coming out sounding young and was quiet in comparison to the man’s.<br/>“Shut up. Don't yell at the person putting you back together." He finished cleaning as much of the blood as he could, before checking on the cut portions of his limbs to make sure the bone pieces were clean and fit together right.<br/>"So...Ya gonna tell me what you're doing?"<br/>"I'm, first, going to test your blood against mine." Pink eyes looked confused.<br/>"Why?"<br/>"I have a feeling you're my ancestor."<br/>"EH?! Wait...Ancestor?!" Dual toned eyes peered into two that matched his left. A perfect match in shade.<br/>"Ah. That's right. You've been buried for a long time. Maybe four thousand years." The asshole look on the man's face dropped to shock.<br/>“Wh...What?” <br/>"It's 3024 CE. You were buried, roughly, in 1354 BCE." There was a moment of silence.<br/>"How did you find me, then?"<br/>"Through something that will, probably, inflate your pride further than it needs to be. There's a myth that says there's a man who's buried in a forest somewhere and is still alive. I found more information, which included a picture of you...even if the camera wasn't invented before the Common Era. When I set out to find you, I came here from the clues and a strong gut feeling. That...is how I found you, Hidan."</p><p>After a moment, the albino sighed a little.<br/>"So...You're gonna put me back together?"<br/>"I will...If you promise me that you won't go sacrificing people to Jashin."<br/>"You know of my Lord?"<br/>"Of course I do. One, I have a version of Jashin's blessing. Two, I read up on you and the religion you're a part of."<br/>"Then why do you need to test my blood?"<br/>"I want to see if I'm related to you or if I've been given the blessing completely unrelated." The man, knowing he couldn't nod, voiced his understanding.<br/>"Ah. So...Are you gonna put me together?"<br/>"Do you promise me? I can't take you off the island without your word. I understand that it would weaken your healing, but it won't affect your immortality...as we can see, now." It took a few minutes for the man to sigh.<br/>"Fine...I'll have no mercy for those that attack me, though."<br/>"That's fine...and legal." The man gave a grin that struck him. It was like his own...when he smiled that is.<br/>"Great! Just push my limbs to me. They'll heal in time." A flicker of a glint came into his vision, making his eyes focus on the needle and thread in the light greenette’s hand. He barked a laugh.<br/>“Even better!” Due to his size, stitching him up was a little difficult.</p><p>It would take at least an hour for him to fuse enough to stand. During this time, a scroll was set out, some of his and the man’s blood being dripped onto it.<br/>"I found this scroll with the books. The writing was an older variant of the kanji we use, today. It should tell us if we're related." That was when the man glanced into the trees.<br/>"Hey...Why didn't the fuckin' deer attack you, as soon as you got here?" Bicolored eyes looked up.<br/>"Seems they let only one clan, and those they allow, onto this island."<br/>"You're...a <i>Nara?!"</i> So the man had known the name of the man that had dug his grave and buried him alive.<br/>"I wasn't aware of it, until one of the bucks shared some information with me. Yes. I am. It explains my ability to manipulate my shadow." Hidan let out a deep sigh.<br/>"Damn, Kid. What's your name, anyways?" The greenette seemed a bit hesitant.<br/>"M...Midoriya Izuku." A silver brow rose.<br/>"Eh? What's with the tone? You don't like your name?" Izuku sighed and looked away, before the man's voice returned, softer.<br/>"Your...Your parents abuse you...don't they?" Pink and green eyes shot over, as if to ask how he knew.<br/>"I'm a fucking idiot, not stupid. And...I know how it feels. I dropped my family name long before I defected from my village. My parents were the same...before I killed them as my first sacrifices to Jashin." Izuku nodded, staying silent. The man felt something trickle into his chest, finally being able to feel it. It wasn’t pity, that was for damn sure. Sympathy? Understanding?</p><p>Hidan looked at him, taking in how small he was. He looked to be seven. Pale skin, like his own,...faint freckles...light green hair with grey undertones. His right eye was green and his left was pinkish-purple, like his own. The green one had a black ring around the outer edge and had a faint dark teal webbing radiating from his pupil. They were like the clearest dark emerald he'd ever seen. The other was, exactly, like his own...down to the orchid colored border between the iris and the sclera. He stood up.<br/>"I'll...be back. I'm gonna go walk around for a bit." <br/>"'Kay." That left him to stare into the speckles of blue that let the light stream past the slight canopy that covered the forest. The light of midday was enough to send a halo through the leaves, picking up the particles in the air.</p><p>It was twenty minutes later when he returned, carrying some scrolls.<br/>"What'cha got there?"<br/>"Some scrolls that seem to have been made after you were buried. There was a cabin on the other side of the beach." He sat down to read them aloud. Hidan would want to know what had happened.<br/>"There was a war. Uchiha Madara and the Ten Tails. Huh...So the Bijuu were real. The more you know. Anyways, it seems they reanimated a ton of people, including your old organization teammates. Madara was killed again, by Otsutsuki Kaguya, and Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto had to destroy her. Again. They were real people. Interesting."<br/>"Do they say anything after that?" He opened the newest-looking scroll, which was still a bit ancient looking.<br/>"Hum...Looks like there were three more wars, totaling seven in all. The final one released a blast of chakra that fried the Nation's ability to use their own chakra. The, resulting, earthquake shattered the land into chunks that floated to all corners of the world. The people went with it. That makes much more sense now, why we have quirks"<br/>"Quirks?"<br/>"They're powers most of the planet has. For example, my classmate can ignite the nitroglycerin he sweats...there are people that can manipulate fire or have telekinesis. Things like that."<br/>"What did you say made sense?"<br/>"To me, it seems that those that had strong affinities for chakra passed along this affinity through their DNA. People who are quirkless may have had a civilian ancestor or someone that wasn't as chakra inclined." The man sat up, but didn't try to stand yet. <br/>"What about you?" Izuku seemed to understand.<br/>"Mine is a bit of an odd mix. I have Jashin's blessing, which grants me the ritual powers and immortality. I can manipulate my shadow and I have a slight ability to manipulate the air." There was a bit of silence, again.<br/>"Hey...Izuku..." The greenette looked over, a bit surprised. He hadn't been called by his name in a while.<br/>"How old are you? You look...seven." Bicolored eyes closed.<br/>"I'm nine."<br/>"Wh-" Izuku sighed.</p><p>When he opened his eyes, he explained.<br/>"I've been underfed, since I could walk. It...was actually the reason my immortality kicked in. I was laying on the floor of the closet, that was my room, starving. Then, I didn't feel hungry, anymore. I thought I was dying, since that was a symptom of starvation." He could feel the albino staring at him and answered his unasked question.<br/>"I was five."</p><p>Hidan felt his instincts flare. Even in his religion, children were off limits, until they reached sixteen. He wanted to find this kid's parents and kill them.</p><p>He sighed to let the tension out of his chest.<br/>"What're ya gonna do, when you go back?" He got a little shrug.<br/>"Either go home or live on the street. I don't know." The silverette felt a memory flash to mind. It was him as a child. He was taking shelter under a box and it was raining. Part of his hand was missing and slowly healing back over. The blood swirled with the water and colored the mud red, around him. It was a miserable life...especially for someone ten years old. He felt something burst into existence in his chest, his mouth moving before he could think.<br/>"I-" He was cut off, when the scroll flashed dimly, catching their attention. Izuku reached for it and whistled. <br/>"146 generations between us." Surprising Hidan, Izuku gave a cheeky smirk over the edge of the page. It looked damn close to his own.<br/>"You aged well, <i>Old Man."</i> That made him bust out laughing.<br/>"This must be how Kakuzu felt!" A bit of an odd warmth settled in Izuku's chest, before setting the scroll down to let the man see the kanji for the exact number the kid had said.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Adrift</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have a lot written down lmao</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Izuku looked his, <i>many times</i>, great grandfather over and reached into his bag again, bringing out a pair of scissors.<br/>"How short?" Bringing his hand up, he motioned to about halfway down his neck. With strangely skillful hands, Izuku snipped the massive amount of hair away and layered his hair, so that it would lay right, when he brushed it back. <br/>"How do you know how to cut hair?"<br/>"I had to cut my own. Hold still." He did and felt the scissors on his face. When they moved, he laughed.<br/>"Did you just cut my eyebrows?" He got a slightly amused deadpan.<br/>"They were like a foot long." He scratched at his stitches a little.<br/>"Thanks. I think the stitches can be taken out down to my legs." Izuku nodded and got to work removing them.</p><p>After another hour, Hidan found Izuku staring out into the sea. There was a bit of land they could see from there.<br/>"The deer have told me that, since I visited the island, the latent chakra is pulling it closer to the nearest land mass. Japan. Japan runs off a language very similar to the one used throughout the Elemental Nations. They say we should reach just off the coast, by the time the sun sets." Hidan nodded, before stopping, a thought entering his mind.<br/>"Wait...You said something about a classmate. Won't you be looked for, since you didn't show up for school?"<br/>"We had a week break. We go back Monday. In two and a half days. It took me three days to find the island, and one and a half to dig you out and put you back together. Should take about half the day to get back out to the waters of Japan." The albino nodded.<br/>“That makes sense.”</p><p>Hidan asked to be taught what Izuku could tell him about the world, now. It would help him understand what had happened all this time and would kill time. He already knew he couldn't carry his scythe around on the mainland. He'd feel naked, but would have to make himself get used to it. He was going to be staying on the island, mostly, anyways. Being taught the basics of the system...law...heroics...was fairly interesting. Learning of the new technology was fascinating. It seemed that, when the nations shattered, their technology was wiped out, as well. The new people of the planet had to refigure out things that the ninja world had already had for, at least, a hundred years. Televisions. Fridges. Ovens. Steam engines. <i>Lights.</i> The language was almost exactly the same as it was back then, but only on this large island nation. It was different in some sections, but was relatively similar all over the place. </p><p>When they came to within seeing distance of the trash beach, the island stopped in a place it wouldn't be easily discovered and wasn't in any shipping lanes. The illusion over the island would keep other people from seeing it. Izuku gave Hidan a wave.<br/>"See you tomorrow, I guess." The deer gave small, respectful, bows. They knew Izuku had permitted Hidan to stay, even if, all those years ago, Nara Shikamaru had given them the task to keep Hidan in the hole forever. If one of the Nara Clan wished to give this man another chance, they would obey.</p><p>Hidan had a bad feeling. </p><p>As soon as Izuku slipped into the water, he followed him.</p><p>The street was a weird, black, rock. Asphalt, Izuku had told him. He made sure his coat was on securely, he kept following. The kid had some amazing foresight. He'd brought underwear, having a feeling the ones he was wearing would have decayed away over all that time. Seriously, the only things that didn't rot were his sandals, ring, necklace, and the metal part of his forehead protector. And that was due to them being chakra-infused and having preservation seals on them. Probably the last thing Kakuzu had ever gotten him. For his birthday. He never thought he'd miss the miser, but he did. He found himself trailing the boy into a building right on the edge of a darker street that looked like slums. The lamps looked broken. He slipped up the stairs, his footsteps silent. When Izuku opened the door of one of the apartments, a hand grabbed him by the throat and dragged him in. Taking advantage of his black, hooded, cloak, he darted in and stuck himself in a shadow. </p><p>His blood pressure spiked, when he saw a hand slap across Izuku's face.<br/>"Where have you been, Freak?!" Izuku stayed silent, knowing he'd get a beating regardless of whether or not he spoke. It wouldn't be different. There was no reason for him to open his mouth. The woman...his mother...slammed his face into the wall, breaking open the skin between his eyes. He didn't flinch. It hurt, but the beating would be worse if he motioned it hurt. They got a sick pleasure out of seeing him in pain. A fist hit the back of his head, the feeling of the rings on those fingers letting him know it was his father. A set of nails scraped across his face and left long pink lines in his skin, starting to sting and rise off his cheek. They were stark against his, nearly, paper white pallor. </p><p>Hidan twitched, when he saw the woman turn to the kitchen and hold out her hand. A kitchen knife streaked for her, letting her grab it by its handle. A crackle of fire was heard from the man, followed by a, slightly flickering, halo of orange. His mouth was open, a flame building by his tonsils. The silverette knew what was coming. The flame roared, as it streamed for Izuku’s face, starting to char the kid's pale skin black and dark red. Before the woman could even step closer, she found the knife embedded in her throat, her arm having been knocked upwards. The man stopped, upon seeing his wife start drowning in her own blood.<br/>"What did you do, Freak?!" Hidan flashed back into view, face still covered by the hood. His voice was dark and lowered, filled with disgust and angered malice.<br/>"Not him." The side of his hand went to the raven's throat, cutting off his oxygen and making the flame in his lungs burn through the flesh of his chest, melting the very flesh of his organs, while they sat within his body. He was roasted alive and couldn’t scream.</p><p>When they both fell to the ground, dead, he turned to Izuku, finding his skin already almost healed, the burns sloughing and powdering into ash. The red in his skin turning pink, before it was covered by fully healed skin.<br/>"I'm gonna need you to act like I found you on the street."<br/>"How did you even get here?"<br/>"I followed you. I had a fucking bad feeling. I was right." Izuku nodded and was picked up by his grandfather...wow...That was weird to think about. </p><p>When they reached the station, Izuku acted a bit panicked.<br/>"Hey! Hey!" The officers dropped what they were doing and came over to them. Izuku tried and succeeded in acting like a scared child.<br/>"M-My mom and dad were k-ki-killed!" They took down what information he had.<br/>"A-And I ran out the door. I-I didn't realize I was on the street, until Hidan-san found me!" The officer...one with a cat's head...pat the boy's shoulder.<br/>"It's alright. You were scared. Can you tell me who he is to you? You, obviously, trust him enough to carry you."<br/>"H-He's a friend of the family...C-Comes to Japan sometimes...L-Lives on an island he owns..." Hidan would have laughed. The kid's a natural, when it comes to lying! Everything was air tight. When the officer glanced at his state of dress, he sighed.<br/>"Couldn't sleep. I was out on a walk." <br/>"Ah."</p><p>The next couple days were a bit of a blur. Izuku was placed in an orphanage, only to be taken out later that day. Hidan had stopped by and adopted him. They were settling in on the island, having to build a bigger cabin and move it to the beach that faced the shore.<br/>"Hey..." Hidan turned to him.<br/>"Hm?"<br/>"Why did you adopt me? We just met."<br/>"Well...One, we're family. Two, you dug me out of that damn hole and pretty much gave me my life back...or a new one. And three...I never got to actually have a family. I was thrown into that hole and, at the time, I was a violent womanizer. I never settled. I was...22 when I was buried. I guess...along with the other reasons, it's a chance for me to start over?" A soft look came over Izuku's face.<br/>"Thank you. I...guess we can both try to figure out what a family really is...together." He felt a hand ruffle his hair.<br/>"I guess so." Two toned eyes stared at him, having gone a bit wide, Hidan felt a little nervous. Had...that been the wrong thing to do? He'd seen parents do that to their kids, back when he walked around other villages. Did things change or was it something Izuku didn't li-</p><p>He was cut off, when he saw a large smile bloom over the boy's face. He had a flashback. Izuku's face was replaced with a woman's. She had been his age, at the time, with ink black hair and silver eyes that glittered in the sun, like coins. That was when he realized just who he'd had a child with. Izuku tipped his head. Hidan was standing there, as if in shock. After a moment, he heard a name drop from the man's mouth, as if it were a single snowflake.<br/>"Himari..." <br/>"Huh?" Pink eyes blinked and fluttered a moment.<br/>"I just...Your smile...I know exactly who your...however many...great grandmother was. My first girlfriend. She...was my childhood friend. She...wasn't a ninja and, when we were eighteen, she was killed. Apparently, she was able to have a child before that. We hadn't seen each other for a while...since I'd been on missions for a long time." <br/>"Her name was Himari?"<br/>"Yes. Like me, she was an orphan. But, unlike me, she never remembered if she had a family name." Izuku nodded and pat him on the arm.<br/>"C'mon. It's getting dark out. We can talk inside."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Forgiven</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>That Monday, he was to go back to school. He felt like he could. He had to leave the house about half an hour or so before school, so that his clothes could dry. Yesterday, Hidan helped him figure out the wind part of his quirk and found that it was just a singular affinity for wind based chakra. He could only use that chakra and no other elements. Using this as practice, he was able to dry himself off a bit. He picked his backpack up from the cove and started walking to school, continuously using his chakra to dry himself off, little by little. It was the perfect opportunity to do so.</p>
<p>When he reached his classroom, his teacher dropped down to hug him.<br/>"I'm so sorry, Dear." He pat her shoulder.<br/>"There's nothing you could have done about it, Sensei." She was a very empathetic woman, so this was normal. He pulled away from her and sat in his seat, where he noticed Bakugo creeping closer.<br/>"What do you want?" The blonde looked like his throat had dried up. Clearing it, he kept his eyes low.<br/>"I...I'm sorry." Something screeched to a halt in Izuku's mind. He knew the apology wasn't for his parents' deaths.<br/>"What?"<br/>"I've been an ass to you and I've realized that it wasn't right. I...um...picked on you, cause of how you look and your...different...powers. I should have seen how different some heroes look and gone off that. Compared to them, you look normal." Izuku turned, his voice and eyes softened.<br/>"I accept your apology." Red eyes snapped up, obviously startled.<br/>"Just...like that? I made your life hell for five years...and you just forgive me?" Izuku sighed.<br/>"I forgave you, yes. I'm still hurt, but wounds heal with time. I forgave you, because I know how hard it is for you to admit you were wrong. I know you're being genuine." The blonde nodded and Izuku gestured to the seat next to him, inviting him to work on the fun worksheets they were given to draw them back into learning from their break. The blonde was hesitant, but walked closer and slipped into the seat, picking up his pencil to his hand to start.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Five years later found them walking home one day. UA exams were right around the bend. They were taking a shortcut under a bridge, when Izuku shoved Katsuki out of the way, as a mass of slime enveloped him.<br/>“A DISGUISE!” While he didn't need to breathe, he hated feeling his airways closing up and he didn't want to become a meatsuit for this villain! The slime was forcing its way down his throat, as he heard his friend cry his name.<br/>"Izuku!" He was looking around, frantically, for a way to help him. That was when the manhole opened and a man shot through.<br/>"DO NOT WORRY! WHY? BECAUSE I AM HERE!" The broad silhouette was a familiar shape, as a fist was brought forward.<br/>“TEXAS SMASH!” The slime was blown away and across the walls of the alley. Bakugo caught his friend, as he fell.<br/>"Are you alright?"<br/>"Y-Yeah." He was set down, as the hero came over. Both of them looked a little excited.<br/>"Thank you, All Might-san!" He gave a boisterous laugh.<br/>"Not a problem, Shounens!" Izuku looked like something came to mind.<br/>"Hey. Katsuki. I'll meet you in the square in...twenty minutes? tops." Kind of confused, the blonde nodded and slipped away.<br/>"See you there. And thanks again, All Might!"</p>
<p>As soon as Izuku couldn't sense his friend, he turned a little sheepish.<br/>"Sorry about that. I...was wondering if I could get two autographs?"<br/>"Two?"<br/>"One for me and, um, one for him. His birthday's coming up and I thought it would be a good present." The man beamed brightly.<br/>"What a noble reason! Is there anything specific?" Izuku dug into his bag and came back with some collector edition All Might cards. They were like baseball cards, from a thousand years ago, but a bit bigger and with the names of heroes on them, along with pictures.<br/>"I got these yesterday. This seemed like the perfect opportunity." The hero nodded and signed them, handing them back.<br/>"Oh. Before I go...May I ask something?" Izuku looked up.<br/>"Sure."<br/>"You didn't look to be suffocating, when the villain captured you...May I ask how?" Izuku looked a bit anxious.<br/>"Um...If we could...move to a place more private?" The man nodded and wrapped an arm around the greenette's waist, taking them both to the roof.</p>
<p>They didn't notice the bottles dropping from the hero's pockets.</p>
<p>When on the roof, Izuku didn't get a chance to start. Steam puffed around the man's body, leaving him as a living skeleton. He groaned and explained, while wiping the blood from his lip.<br/>"Well...That was unexpected...Alright. I guess I can tell you the real reason for why I wasn't suffocating. A secret for a secret, I guess." The blonde tipped his head, waiting for him to explain.<br/>"Part of my quirk, literally, makes me immortal." A spray of startled blood left the man's mouth, staining his lip. Izuku reached into his bag and handed the man a napkin, which was taken with a nod of thanks.<br/>"I know. Sounds made up. The reason I said the real reason I'm like this is because one of my ancestors is immortal. He's, actually, the one that adopted me, after my parents were murdered." More blood and another napkin.<br/>"He's around, cause I found him and stitched him back together. I'm not sure if you remember or are familiar with the myth of The Immortal Hidan?" He got a nod.<br/>"An immortal man, blessed by his god. He can kill by ingesting the blood of his victim. Was said to be a criminal and a murderer, until he was buried alive by the student of a man he killed."<br/>"You're exactly on the money. That man is real and I found him. Buried alive. In like...seventeen pieces. He was really confused, when I got him out of there, until I told him what was happening. You may not believe me, but that's fine by me. One less person to need to keep my secret." Blue eyes blinked.</p>
<p>A wraith-like hand rubbed down the man's face.<br/>"So. This Hidan is the man that adopted you?"<br/>"Yep. Literally three days after I put him back together. It was the weirdest puzzle ever. But, yeah. He's my...144th great grandfather." That got him a startled swear.<br/>"Holy shit!" <br/>"Yeah. I know. For being over 4.4 thousand years old, he still looks 25." </p>
<p>Suddenly, a massive explosion went off in the square. Pink and green eyes blew wide.<br/>"KATSUKI!"</p>
<p>And he was gone.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In the square, he found the blonde entangled by the villain’s slime, face half covered. The ash blonde looked <i>terrified.</i> The heroes weren't moving in to help him. A bit of panic melded into his instincts, making him dart past the barricade and right at the villain. His hands were already morphing into the seals Hidan had taught him.<br/>"Futon: Daitoppa no Justu!(Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Technique!)" As the slime blew away, Izuku put his hands into a new sign and knelt on one knee, speaking fast, so that Katsuki wouldn't get taken with the wind.<br/>"Kagemange no Justu!(Shadow Imitation Technique!)" His shadow shot out and connected with Bakugo's, keeping him in place. As soon as the wind stopped, he rushed to his friend.<br/>"Oh Jashin-sama! Are you alright?!" It was odd to hear so much worry in the greenette's voice. So much so that Katsuki glazed over the first part of what the other teen had said.<br/>"Yeah. I'm alright. A...A little out of breath, but...yeah..."</p>
<p>They were almost to the beach, when Toshinori ran up.<br/>"Eh? Who's this guy?" The hero sighed and puffed to All Might form, knowing, from Izuku, that Katsuki was amazing with secrets. He was the only other person that knew about Hidan's true origins. When he was finished explaining, the lighter blonde could only stare at him incredulously, his mouth cracked open a touch.<br/>"Holy...shit...How are you even alive, Dude?!" The man chuckled, nervously.<br/>"Been asking myself that for the past five years." Izuku nodded.<br/>"What did you need, Yagi-san?"<br/>"I saw how fast your instincts kicked in to save your friend. I want to offer you my power!" Both teenagers stared at them, then each other, then back to him. <br/>"What...is your power?" He explained the stockpiling nature of his quirk and Izuku tipped his head.<br/>"Hmm...My quirk is already a bit overpowered...Why not ask Katsuki?" The ashen blonde looked startled.<br/>"W-Wait...What? Me?"<br/>"You want to be an above ground hero. I want to be underground. It's the perfect quirk for you, especially with the one you already have. Imagine adding more strength to your explosions." The lighter blonde whistled, before looking back to Toshinori for a moment and responding.<br/>"So...Do I get the same offer?" The skeletal man grinned.<br/>"Of course!"<br/>"I'll take it!" The man decided to give them both his number, just in case. </p>
<p>When he went to leave, Izuku called to him.<br/>"Would you like to come over for tea?" Toshinori was surprised, but smiled.<br/>"I would be delighted!"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Stitch The Sever</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is a bigger boi</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They reached the shore and Izuku fetched a small boat from the cove.</p>
<p>"A...boat?"<br/>"Yeah. I live on an island, just off the beach. You can't see it, cause of something from where Hidan came from. I can tell you a bit. The ride takes about ten minutes." He laughed a bit.<br/>"I used to just walk along the ocean floor." He dove into some explanation about chakra and the island they were about to make landfall on.</p>
<p>When they got out of the boat, some deer came to the edge of the trees.<br/>"They come to greet me, when I come home." He pet one across the side of its snout, without checking for antlers. <br/>"They only let people from my clan and those I allow onto this island."<br/>"Clan?"<br/>"Yes. The Nara Clan. From the myths. The ones who take care of deer and, in return, have a special bond with them. C'mon." Both blondes followed him a little down the beach. The island was small, but large enough to hold a forest on its back.</p>
<p>A silver haired man was sitting outside the only cabin on the island. He wore a pair of dark blue pants, taped off at his ankles and around his waist, in white. He was shirtless, showing off his pale skin and hard muscle definition, while a metal chain and simple pendant hung around his neck. A cloth was tied around his neck, a metal plate sewed onto it. It had three loose S shapes carved into it, struck through with a line. The last thing on him was a ring on his left index finger. As they got closer, it was found to be a soft orange toned with the kanji for three on it, in black. Toshinori felt chills travel down his spine, as the scraping sound of a wet stone filled his hearing. It wasn't exactly the sound he was freaked at. It was what the man was sharpening. A three-bladed, blood red, scythe. He heard Izuku call over to the man.<br/>"Tou-san! We have a guest!" He looked up, putting a hand to the back of his head, sheepishly.<br/>"Oi. Oi...It still feels weird being called that..." A teasing smirk crossed the greenette's face.<br/>"Would you rather be called Jiji?" The man waved his hands, a bit of sweat dripping down his temple. A nervous laugh left his mouth.<br/>"Tou-san's fine!"</p>
<p>Izuku laughed a touch.<br/>"Tou-san, this is Yagi Toshinori. Yagi-san, this is Hidan." The blonde seemed to have issues breathing. Shock and a singular lung would do that. Setting the scythe against the side of the house, Hidan stood.<br/>"Oi. You alright, Dude? Ya look like you're gonna fall over." Toshinori nodded, trying to control his breathing, but only making some blood come up his throat, making Hidan start.<br/>"Woah! Woah!" Seeing as the man was who Izuku had said he was, he broke and told the story for a third time.</p>
<p>Hidan gave a startled half smile.<br/>"Damn. You're a fucking badass!" The brighter blonde looked up, a bit confused.<br/>"What?"<br/>"I'm pretty sure any man, lesser than you, would have given up, but you...you kept being a hero, even with your handicap." The silverette pat the man's back a bit.<br/>"Even back in my time, I never met anyone that could do what you did." Toshinori smiled a little, making Hidan laugh.<br/>"See?! Most people wouldn't be able to smile after all the shit you went through. You're strong. Don't forget that." </p>
<p>Izuku smiled, a little, from behind his ancestor. He was proud of him. He'd changed for the better, over these past five years. They’d both changed. Most of the residual habits from the abuse had subsided, some, and Hidan's violent nature shot down the day he'd adopted him. He felt a brush against his side and pet his hand over the side of a young buck. It was the fawn from that day, five years ago. He could tell. He could always tell.</p>
<p>Suddenly, Hidan looked back at him, like he remembered something.<br/>"Did you tell Katsuki about the thing we figured out?"<br/>"Not yet. I was gonna tell him when we got here, but...eh...you saw what happened." Yeah. They had a TV. <br/>"Does Yagi-san know?" Loose green curls shuffled, as he shook his head, bringing his undertones into sight. <br/>"I didn't get around to telling him much, beyond that I'm immortal and a little about you. I thought it was only fair, seeing that he told me his secret." The man nodded, as Toshinori cleared his throat.<br/>"Please. Call me Toshinori. Being called Yagi feels weird." All three of them nodded and Hidan began explaining.<br/>"Another part to the immortality thing is that both Izuku and I have a ritual form. It may seem freaky, at first, but, as soon as you remember that we can't die, it gets less and less weird."<br/>"O...kay?"<br/>"It has to do with my religion, which is real, mind you." Izuku snickered.<br/>"Don't start preaching the way of Jashin. We might believe, but they won't, considering how violent our Lord is." Bakugo laughed a bit.<br/>"So, you did say that, earlier." The ash blonde knew about his religion.<br/>"You rarely say Jashin's name, when off this island." The greenette shrugged and ran a hand through his hair, mixing the green bits with the dark grey. Two pink eyes seemed to flicker. Izuku knew what those strands reminded his ancestor of Himari and of Nara Shikamaru, the teenager that buried him. The same man he was related to, by blood, and, by extension, Shikamaru's wife, Temari. </p>
<p>They moved to an open space and had the other two back up a bit. Bakugo put his hands into his pockets.<br/>"Don't freak out, when they do this. They're both fine." The man gave a hesitant nod, as he watched the man and teenager each take a knife and slice open their palms. He started, but made himself stay in his spot. They traded knives and stepped a bit away from each other, before a few drops of blood hit the dirt. Putting a foot in the small puddle, they made a circle around their feet, finishing it with a triangle with the point faced behind them. Bringing the knives to their faces, they licked the blood from the blades. Both started to change appearances at the same time. Black skin like it was the void. White markings, like simplified bones. The white skull on their faces was exactly the same, down to the circle below their widows peaks and the missing bit right below their left eyes.<br/>"Woah..." Bakugo nodded, knowing it was a little unsettling to see them change...especially the first time.</p>
<p>Izuku lifted the knife to his arm and sliced across, drawing a jolt from the hero. The same cut appeared on Hidan's arm, before getting deeper on Izuku's. It kept going, back and forth, until a crack and snap was heard, but neither man nor boy looked to be in pain. Finally, the last slice made both of their arms drop to the ground, leaving a stump and a bit of splintered bone open to the air. </p>
<p>To Toshinori's surprise, both the boy and his 'father' were laughing, as the markings faded. When they were completely gone, both winced with a hiss of a curse.<br/>"Fuck..." Leaning down, they picked up their arms and lined the bone up with their stumps. Holding it there, they walked back over to the other two, getting a smirk from Katsuki.<br/>"It's always amusing to see you both go ritual mode. Especially you, Oyaji."<br/>"Hm? How so, Squirt?"<br/>"Makes me wonder how many people shit themselves, back when you were sacrificing people." Hidan tried and failed to keep from laughing.<br/>"More than you'd think, considering they were shinobi." The taller blonde cleared his throat.<br/>"Uh...Sacrificing?" Hidan nodded and moved his arm a little. The bone was fused together, enough, so he could let go of it. He just needed to be careful.</p>
<p>He scratched right under the back part of his hair.<br/>"Yeah. It's the way of our religion. But it's not completely necessary. It just lessens the pain when getting injured and makes the healing process faster. It's not needed for the immortality. I survived four thousand years in a hole, without any sacrifices...but that may have been ‘cause I was suffering, myself..." Izuku sighed and continued for him.<br/>"Like I told you, I found him in about seventeen pieces." His father-figure laughed.<br/>"My hair was so damn long!" <br/>"I'm surprised it grew, let alone fit into the hole. When I was stitching him back together, it was still in the hole...like ten feet down...and still partially buried in rock." <br/>"It was maybe...fifteen feet long? My hair grows pretty slow, normally." Toshinori smiled, seeing the resemblance between them. Pale hair. At least one pink iris. Milk white skin. Laugh. Posture...partially. Had he not known they were so far apart in age and generation, he would have thought them actual father and son. They were so alike.</p>
<p>Izuku led them inside and the brighter blonde found that the place was rather homey for a little cabin. A kitchen area, a sitting room with a TV, two bedrooms, and a storage room. Out the back was a shower and a small sauna. The greenette put a kettle on the stove.<br/>“We don’t really need to eat, but we like to, sometimes.” Hidan cracked his neck.<br/>“Hey, Izuku. I’m gonna go pray for a bit.” <br/>“See you, tonight.” The man yawned and waved, walking out the back. Toshinori stared after him, making the shorter teenager smile a bit.<br/>“The way we pray requires the same symbol, we used earlier. It’s the symbol of Jashin. We lay in them and stab ourselves in places that would be fatal to other people. Usually, we can tell when we can get up and call the ritual complete.” The man nodded and the tea was brought over, just as Katsuki finished sending his parents a text that he was alright, along with a picture of himself on Nara Island, as he, Hidan, and Izuku had taken to calling it. He didn’t realize the albino had photo bombed him, until after he took it. Toshinori watched the boy turn around and stick his tongue out, making Hidan’s laugh echo across the field, before he slipped past the treeline.</p>
<p>While Izuku talked with Toshinori and Katsuki, Hidan made the symbol on the ground and stabbed his retractable spear through his heart, laying down inside the circle. The sky was clear, only streaked, slightly, by clouds of pulled cotton wisps. Something about the slight grey hue they had reminded him of Kakuzu. Maybe it was his threads or his hood that it reminded him of...He didn’t know. He found his mind wandering.</p>
<p>Remembering of the days they used to annoy the living shit out of each other. Yet...His partner hadn’t, once, abandoned him. He could have, very easily, left him in a hole, like the one he was exploded into. But...He didn’t. Maybe it was because he was the only one of his partners that he <i>couldn’t</i> kill. Or maybe it was because he found him useful? He...He’d never asked. If he had, he wondered what the answer would be. Or if he would have been decapitated for wasting time to ask a stupid, meaningless, question. He tried to think about why HE hadn’t killed Kakuzu, like everyone else he’d bickered with. Was it because the miser was skilled enough to keep him away? Or was it something different? Did he like bickering with the man? Sometimes it was fun to get under the man’s skin, but...There were times it felt wrong. He remembered that sometimes...He could just feel when the time was wrong for jokes or even talking. There was a singular memory that came to mind at that thought.</p>
<p>
  <i>It was raining and they were between villages. He felt that there was tension, which, usually, he would try to break by saying something about the bounty or teasing Kakuzu a bit. But...Something felt different, today. He didn’t know, exactly, what was wrong, but he kept his mouth shut. That was when he glanced up and saw the slashed Taki headband around Kakuzu’s forehead. That’s right. They were pretty close to Waterfall. Maybe that was the reason the man was so tense. He was broken from his thoughts, when the miser snapped his fingers in his face.<br/>“Ah.”<br/>“Don’t go spacing out. We need to cross this area fast.” So it was Waterfall making him a bit on edge. Without saying anything, he followed him, making sure to keep up. When they were past the village, he just stayed on his partner’s tail. Another hour went by, before the older man turned, suddenly, making him stop walking, so he didn’t run into him. Did he...do something wrong? Those eyes narrowed and looked him over, making him a little nervous, out of nowhere. What did he do?<br/>“You’ve been quiet, since we turned in the bounty. It’s not like you.” Hidan put his hand to the side of his head.<br/>“Ah. I noticed you were tense, so...I didn’t want to say something and risk getting my head cut off.” Red and green eyes flicked over him...scrutinizing his expression, as if trying to weed out any sarcasm. He wouldn’t find any.<br/>“What made you think I was tense?” The hand moved back, scratching at the bend in the back of his head.<br/>“You were...Your chakra was a bit anxious. I...didn’t know why, until I realized where we were.” He saw Kakuzu lift a brow, obviously surprise the shorter was being so observant. He turned back around with a minute shrug and they continued walking. Seems his curiosity was satisfied.</i>
</p>
<p>When his eyes opened again, the sky was just turning goldenrod and there was the quiet sound of a deer stamping its hoof. He turned his head and found a buck looking at him with black voids for eyes. It’s caramel fur was bronzed by the afternoon sun. Another memory of his partner flicked to mind. Why was he thinking about him so much? They’d been pains in each other’s asses. He sat up and removed the stake through him. The symbol was still there, as he closed the spear up into its collapsed form. But, he just sat there, until a muzzle nudged him. He looked over and scratched behind the buck’s antlers, before standing and scuffing away the blood. He pat the deer’s head, again, and turned to return to the cabin to wash up. He had dried blood on his chest and some spilled from his mouth. </p>
<p>The three were still there, sat at the table, as if they hadn’t moved. Izuku smiled at him and walked to the sink to wet a towel and hand it to the man.<br/>“Thanks.” He wiped himself down, getting Izuku’s help with the little bit on his back. The other two noticed the buck that walked up to the door. Hidan pat its head again.<br/>“Followed me, didn’t ya?” When he moved his hand, it sneezed, before stepping over to the greenette. Pressing its head into Izuku’s, it seemed like it was transferring knowledge. Heterochromatic eyes flickered, before looking to his father-figure.<br/>“Are you alright?”<br/>“Yeah. I’m good. Just need to warm up a little.” There was an unsaid ‘I’ll tell you later’ squeezed into his tone.</p>
<p>A few more minutes went by, before Izuku left to take Toshinori and Katsuki back to the mainland.</p>
<p>When he returned, he sat his father down, his voice gentle.<br/>“What’s wrong? You don’t, usually, pray that long on a single stab. Were...you thinking about your past?” Hidan sighed and dragged a hand over his face, dark green nail polish unchipped and normal looking.<br/>“Yeah…”<br/>“Kakuzu?”<br/>“Yeah...I was remembering one of the only times I’ve ever seen him confused at something I did.” Izuku nodded, knowing something inside the man missed his old partner. From the stories, he figured they both had a unique sort of relationship. Maybe it was a kinship, due to their immortality routes? Kakuzu’s being pseudo and Hidan’s being literal.<br/>“I just...don’t know why I keep thinking of him.” He put his head on the table and folded his hands over the back of his neck, as a frustrated sigh left his mouth. He felt Izuku brush his fingers through his bangs, as they fluffed out of the slicked back style he, usually, had it in.</p>
<p>He had a vague memory of larger...older...fingers doing just the same, but…</p>
<p>Who had it been?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Lost Minds</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>WHAT IS SLEEP?!</p><p>Also, I know this seems like it's moving fast. I'm just mega excited!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was weird to see two pairs of people on the beach. Now, that wouldn’t have been that strange, had it not been the beach covered in trash and junk.</p><p>Toshinori was looking around and spotting things for Katsuki to bring to the truck, since the smaller trash was scattered amongst the larger. <br/>“This one?”<br/>“Yeah!” It was a microwave that looked like it was filled with parts. He picked it up and started lugging it towards the truck. He wasn’t the only one cleaning. Toshinori was too, but he was on his break, at the moment. </p><p>On the stretch of sand before the water, Hidan was swiping at Izuku with his spear, while being blocked. The greenette lashed out with the scythe in his hand. <i>The</i> scythe. He gouged into his father’s stomach, sending some blood dribbling down his lip.<br/>“Good! But!” He got a kick to the ribs.<br/>“Guard your sides! Don’t focus your attention on one place and on one person. Odds are, you’ll be against multiple people, if you really want to go the underground route! Suiton: Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!(Water Style: Water Clone Technique!)” Two more Hidan’s rose from the water and started attacking Izuku. The silverette rarely used chakra back then, but tended to use it more, now. His rituals didn’t require chakra to work and neither did his immortality. </p><p>Bakugo stopped by the truck to put the appliance in the back and noticed Toshinori looking over to the other two. He turned around in time to see one of the clones get dispelled by the scythe slicing its head off. There was a slight force around the blades. Wind chakra. The other one brought a knee to the greenette’s side, before getting cut in half. It dispelled into a splash of water, as he swung the weapon up to block the attack headed for his face. When he was able to kick the man back a bit, he sped through seals.<br/>“Futon: Kaze Bakuhatsu no Jutsu!(Wind Style: Wind Explosion Technique!)” The sphere was a direct hit, launching Hidan onto his back in an explosion of sand. His body was littered with cuts.<br/>“You doing alright?” He got a thumbs up, as the man sat up and laughed. </p><p>Toshinori called over.<br/>“Let’s take a break!” They both nodded and Izuku helped his dad off the ground. <br/>“Sounds good!” They walked over and sat in the bed of the hero’s truck, which was facing the sea. The greenette accepted the water bottle he was being handed and took a sip. His gaze panned out to the horizon, across the great expanse of the ocean. Something was calling him out to it. Not, particularly, the water, but...something else. He didn’t know. It wasn’t adventure...It wasn’t the open sea...so what was it? </p><p>He was knocked from his thoughts by a hand waving in front of his face.<br/>“Oh. Sorry. What were you saying?”<br/>“I wasn’t. You just looked like you fazed out.”<br/>“Yeah. Sorry. I was thinking.”<br/>“Hm?” He sighed and looked out to where sea met sky.<br/>“I have a gut feeling…” That made pink-purple eyes widen. When Izuku got gut feelings, that meant something big was gonna happen. And it wasn’t just the exams in nine months. <br/>“Huh…” He looked out to the water, as if trying to find the same point his descendant was looking at.<br/>“I wonder what’s got your instincts firing…”</p><p> </p><p>After that week, Hidan came to the beach, alone. Toshinori looked surprised.<br/>“Where’s Izuku?” The albino pointed out to the ocean.<br/>“He needed to act on that feeling he had, last week. He said he should be back in a few days.” He found the man staring between him and the water.<br/>“I trust him and his instincts. Whatever he felt was important enough for him to go looking. He doesn’t usually do this, but...It was the same kind of feeling he had when he found me.” Blue eyes stared the direction he was pointing, like he was trying to see a little speck on the water.<br/>“He left around five, this morning. He should be fucking far away, by now.” Cerulean eyes drew down, as he nodded. Seeing as Hidan wouldn’t have much to do for a couple days, Toshinori thought it would be a good time to start melee training Bakugo. The ash blonde felt a shiver travel down his spine, as he picked up a few old pipes. He had the urge to pop some aspirin, right now, as if he’d be drop dead sore later.</p><p> </p><p>The ocean lapped at his boat, as he drifted. The sun was right overhead. That was when he saw the mass of land come closer. As he made it to shore, he dragged the dinghy onto the sand and grabbed his bag. It was a larger island, so he needed to get started. The first place he came upon was only a point of interest, because there was a lake being fed by a waterfall. It was made more interesting, when he found a decapitated shark on the bank. He reached into his satchel and pulled out a scroll. Reading it, he hummed to himself.<br/>“This looks like the place...Waterfall...lake...A ton of blood.” He put the scroll away, as soon as he came upon a grassy area that looked like it had black paint spilled over it. He knew what he was looking at. Especially when those small eyes peered at him from two thirds of a face. </p><p>Coming closer, he crouched away from the body. This wasn’t the thing making his instincts go off. He took a picture of the, intact, portion of his face and took the ring from the ring finger of the left hand. He had to look for it, seeing as it was severed and thrown. He’d read about the famed Tailed Beast Without A Tail. Hoshigaki Kisame. He’d, also, learned of his, pretty epic, suicide-by-shark-summons. It was the way a shinobi should die. Keeping secrets out of the hands of the enemy. And, for that, Izuku made time to give the shark-man a proper burial. Complete with a headstone, carved with wind chakra. </p><p> </p><p>The next island he found was smaller, but had some ruined buildings on it. He walked the streets and found where the scroll told him they were. There was a huge bed of paper flowers, upon which two bodies lay, as if asleep. One had white hair and seemed sickly, while the other had fire orange hair and was decorated with piercings. Nagato and Yahiko...or, as the organization knew, Pein. He took a picture of both of their peaceful faces, before taking the ring off Yahiko’s right thumb. He held his Jashinism pendant to his mouth.<br/>“I hope you’ve had safe passage to the afterlife. I pray unto thee. I pray that they have reached your holy altar and have received your gracious will. Amen.” </p><p>He sensed something out in the water and used his wind manipulation to levitate himself over the water, where he walked, until he felt the source drop into the sea. It was still on the shelf of this island’s shore. He dropped below the surface and reemerged, carrying a woman. Her blue hair stuck to her face, as a paper flower sat higher against her scalp. Her eyes were closed, but he’s been told that they were a lovely honey-orange color. As he walked on air to return to the island, he brought her to the shrine and placed her to Yahiko’s side. Her name had been Konan and she was the only woman in the organization, when they’d all died. He took her picture and her ring, from her right middle finger. As he prayed for her soul, even if it had been thousands of years since she’d died, he could have sworn he saw her smile, even in death.</p><p> </p><p>It took him a lot of will, but he was able to leave...Leave them to, finally, rest peacefully. Together.</p><p>The next island was right next to the last. The land was scorched and there was no vegetation. He was, honestly, surprised he found anything. In the center of the blast zone, he took a look around, before something glinted in the sunlight. A ring. And it was on a right index finger. He took it and kept searching. He came across part of a head. Which was surprising, considering the nature of the explosion. Using his entire body as a fuse and a power source, at the same time. That was the final piece of art The Mad Bomber ever executed. Deidara. The face was partially into the soil. He didn’t move it. One picture later, he was burying the body parts he could find. The rest must have been obliterated in the blast.</p><p> </p><p>The next land mass was pretty big. So big, in fact, that a desert encompassed its back, the edges steep with craggy cliffs that kept the sand from being blown off by the sea breezes. It was the longest trek of his journey. The storms and the nature of the sand were a pain in the ass. He, finally, came across the ruins of a village. A, towering, building lay on its side, window smashed a long time ago. From the earthquake. The sand moved off a metal plate. The engraving showed some kind of jar. He was drawn into a home and down some stairs, into the cellar, where he found something leaned against the wall. It was humanoid, with red hair, and had many weapons sticking out from it. A fighting puppet. He recognized this one...made from the puppet body of Akasuna no Sasori...Sasori of The Red Sand. The man had been killed by the hands of his grandmother. It was a desperate act. One of love. She knew he’d lost his mind. He had to be stopped. He’d gone so far as turning himself into a puppet. He took a picture of the puppet’s face and, as soon as he moved his foot, he dragged up some sand. Peeking through was a glint. He grouched and uncovered the item. Sasori’s ring.</p><p> </p><p>This next island was smaller than, even, the island he’d made his home on with Hidan. It was rocky and mountainous and had odd terrain. He had to levitate to figure out where he was going. He found himself on a ledge, mere meters from the tallest point. A young man laid there, his eyes closed. He was smiling. It would have been serene had Izuku not known the painful death this man went through. Fighting his brother. Dying from an incurable illness. Nearly blind. He survived, so that he brother could have vengeance on him for slaughtering their clan. He greeted death as if it were an old friend. Such was the life of Uchiha Itachi of The Sharingan. He knew there wasn’t much he could do to bury such a noble man. The island wasn’t built for it. After snapping a picture and removing the ring from his right ring finger, he shifted the man’s body into his arms. Lowering more, he entered a cave he’d seen on the way up. There was an area for him to set him down. He piled stones over his body, marking the grave with the man’s name carved into the stone wall. </p><p>As if the sky knew how this man had lived his life, it began to rain, outside. Izuku gave a longer prayer and knew it was time for Uchiha Itachi to rest forever. When he left, he rolled a heavy stone over the entrance, being reminded of the biblical tomb of Jesus.</p><p> </p><p>This was the final island in this area. If this wasn’t where his gut was telling him to go, he was gonna scream. It looked like it’d broken off of the island he lived on. While there were no deer, there were some green trees around part of the island’s edge. Most of the island was a wasteland, with lage, dead, trees, missing leaves or complicated branches. As he came closer and closer, his stomach swirled and leaped. Finally, the feeling, suddenly, dropped away into a cold, full body, ice bath.</p><p>Why?</p><p> </p><p>He was staring into lifeless, red and green, eyes.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Sheer Hope</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ANOTHER THICC ASS BOI</p>
<p>Also a bit of a TW for gore and some other things that I don't want to spoil, so just be aware, plz</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He felt his breath hitch, even if he didn’t need to breathe. </p>
<p>There were grey tendrils spilling from the stitches that widened the man’s mouth and spilled from his back, like fur. He saw the shaved away skin and the parts of his arms released from stitches. All over the rest of his body, the lines crossed him every which way. He felt the urge to turn him onto his back. When he did, he found him to be a beast of a man. He was broad and built out with muscle, he knew, was earned over his very long life. No scars, beyond the stitches. Not even from a broken bone. The only thing that marred his skin were the two black rings on each forearm. Once again, almost all clothes had been rotted away. He didn’t even see where the man’s forehead protector went. </p>
<p>He went to grab his camera, when a thought struck him. He didn’t know what compelled him to think about it, but he...Could that actually work? It’d been so long...Could he, <i>actually,</i> cheat the system, by doing this? He looked at his hands, his fingernails painted a dark grey-purple. What did he, really, have to lose? </p>
<p>Leaning down a bit, he touched his fingers to the threads that stitched over the man’s chest, a little. They were oddly smooth and nod dried out from the constant heat. He watched as they, slowly, came loose, pulling back away from his skin, like limp snakes. When he could see into the man’s chest, slightly, he stared at his hand again. <br/>“I...I really hope this works.” His hand was haloed in a blue tinged aura, as he started breathing quicker and in short bursts, as if psyching himself up for something. That was when his hand shot in towards himself, carving into his ribcage. He grit his teeth, as he yanked his hand back, stained a bright, vibrant, crimson. His fingers pulsated, clutching his own, still beating, heart. It throbbed and began to slow, as he pushed past the fatigue and fit it into the corpse’s chest cavity, fiddling with the arteries to get them to line up. When he saw the organ start to pick up the pace, he drew his hands back in time to see the entire body convulse once. Twice. </p>
<p>The hand, closest to him, shot up and clamped around his windpipe. Again, he didn’t need to breathe, but it was extremely painful. The threads shot back into the body, stitching up his back, arms, and chest again. A deep, slightly sore, breath entered the man’s lungs, before pushing back out again. Those bicolored eyes blinked and flickered, making Izuku breathe two words that made the man look over to him.<br/>“It...worked…” It seemed the man’s vision was still coming back in, seeing as his eyes flicked to his hair, before zeroing in on his left eye. His right was closed, due to the position. The hand was removed, as a deep voice rasped into the air.<br/>“Hi...Hidan?” Shivering, as his heart started forming a bit, he coughed.<br/>“Not quite.” He opened his other eye, showing that it was green. As soon as the man started to get his bearings, he seemed to notice the green hair.<br/>“Wh...Why did you sacrifice your heart to revive me?” He never broke eye contact.<br/>“Because I’m the only one that could. Things are much different, now, Kakuzu-san.” <br/>“How do you...know my name? If things are different…” Izuku closed his eyes.<br/>“Hidan told me.”<br/>“Hidan?”<br/>“Yes. It’s because of his blood that I’m not dying.” Kakuzu seemed to notice the <i>fucking hole</i> in this kid’s chest.<br/>“How…” Izuku sighed and held the wound.<br/>“It’s been a very long time since you died. My heart being able to revive you was both dumb luck and a bit of a loophole.” He took a breath to try and soothe some of the pain.<br/>“I’m immortal, just like Hidan. My instincts told me to try and see if an immortal heart would kickstart your body again.” He was stared at.</p>
<p>Kakuzu spoke again, his voice less raw.<br/>“What did you mean by his blood being the reason you’re alive?”<br/>“Hidan is my ancestor. It’s been 4.4 thousand years, since you died.” That stunned the man into shock, which gave Izuku time to explain a little bit.<br/>“Five years ago, my gut led me to find where Hidan was buried. He was still alive. I dug him out and put him back together. About half a day later, he killed my abusive parents and adopted me. He’s helping me train for a school I’m going to, at the moment. That’s the last five and a half years in a nutshell. I can tell you more on the way back.” Kakuzu met Izuku’s stare.<br/>“Why did you even come look for me, in the first place?”<br/>“My gut was telling me to go somewhere. I found most of the Akatsuki’s bodies. Then, I find you, and the feeling goes away. That means I found what my instincts were telling me to find.”<br/>“And...Why did you even think about reviving me?” The greenette sighed, his voice quiet.<br/>“Because...Hidan misses you.” </p>
<p>He was stared at.<br/>“We’re...talking about the same Hidan...Right?”<br/>“Yes. He’s changed.” When the man tried to sit up, he found Izuku holding a hand up for him to wait. He reached into his bag and pulled out a cloak.<br/>“You’re kinda...naked.” He got a raised brow.<br/>“And you weren’t scared? I’m covered in stitches.” The teenager shrugged.<br/>“Nobody looks the same. I mean, look at me. I’m a mix of pastel colors and then BOOM my right eye. There are people in this world that look like animals or machines. I can explain, as we get out of here.” Stepping back, he offered Kakuzu a hand, which was taken. He was a bit weak, seeing as his heart was only a sixth grown, but he was able to help him up.<br/>“Who are you?” When he let the man go, some threads crawled up his arm and stuck into his flesh. He felt the hole in his chest suturing up. When it was closed, he moved his hand to the threads, a thankful smile across his lips.<br/>“Izuku.”<br/>“Izuku…”<br/>“Just...Izuku.” </p>
<p>On their way to the shore, Izuku kept an eye on Kakuzu. He didn’t throw his arm over his shoulder or ask if he needed help. If he needed it, he would ask. Besides, he was confident the man would be able to make it on his own. He just needed to get used to walking again. He held the cloak close to his body, seeing as it was getting to be later in the day. The air was cooling down. Izuku collected some wind chakra around his hand and merged it with his body heat, before waving to the side and back, casting a gentle, warm, wind back onto the man. That made him look up.<br/>“How did you do that? You said that chakra was ripped from the world.”<br/>“There are exceptions. These are myself and Hidan, as per my current knowledge. If you’re using your Jiongu, then that means you still have chakra, too. Though, I am unsure why or how.” On the walk to the shore, Izuku explained what quirks were and what his own were. Kakuzu was actually pretty interested to learn about them. He pieced together two parts of his lineage from that alone.<br/>“So...In conjunction with having Hidan as an ancestor, you’re also part of the Nara Clan.” The greenette nodded and answered, even if it wasn’t a question.<br/>“I am. We’re here.” He pulled the dinghy closer and more out of the surf, so that Kakuzu could get in.</p>
<p>He pushed it back into the water and hopped in, himself. The ocean was relatively calm, so he had to pull the oars out and start rowing. A couple minutes from the shore, Kakuzu looked up and asked a, sudden, question.<br/>“How is he?” Pink and green met red and green.<br/>“Hidan?”<br/>“Yes.”<br/>“If you’re asking if he’s like the last time you saw him...No. He’s not violent. He promised me that he wouldn’t sacrifice people. For never doing it before, he’s done a phenomenal job at raising me, but...That was probably due to my actual parents having been absolutely horrible. This past year, he’s been more quiet. He thinks of you, often. It...makes him sad. He’d never say so, but I can tell...and so can the deer.” There was a soft chuckle from the man across from him.<br/>“Stubborn as always.” That made a gentle smile cross Izuku’s lips.<br/>“Yeah...But that’s just Hidan for you.” He watched the brunette look to the sky, watching it swirl with tropical hues and pulled cotton clouds. They were headed away from the sun.</p>
<p>When he looked back down, he found that the teenager was still smiling, even if it was just a ghost of one.<br/>“You’re still smiling.” He stopped rowing and lifted a hand to his mouth, as if he were tracing its shape. He dropped his hand and returned it to the oar.<br/>“I guess I am. I just...I’m relieved.”<br/>“Relieved?”<br/>“Relieved that my gut led me where I needed to go...Relieved that it was you I needed to find. I guess I’m also relieved that my heart was able to revive you.” Kakuzu stared at this kid, as he gave a little laugh. A memory of Hidan fell over him. The same milk skin. The same laugh. The same way he closed his eyes. The way his hair was pushed back, even if Izuku was wearing a cloth band to hold his slight curls out of his face, instead of just being combed. <br/>“You...really do look like him…” The greenette blinked at him, in surprise. Even that single dark pink eye showed emotion like Hidan’s did.<br/>“I know you said he’s your ancestor, but...You look like you could be his son.” That made another happy laugh trickle from the teenager’s mouth.<br/>“That makes me so happy!”</p>
<p>The confused stare he got made him explain.<br/>“Like I said before, my biological parents were abusive to me. Only you, me, and Hidan knows this fact, along with the one about Hidan killing them. Anyways, my parents used to starve me and hit and burn me. I was thrown out windows, slammed in doors, burned on the stove...My father used to burn me with his fire breath. When my immortality came in, I was starving to death on the floor of my room, when I was five. I...remember wanting to scream. I wanted to know why they hated me. I never found out. But, I think it was my unnatural coloring, considering neither of them had pink eyes. I won’t ever know and, frankly...It still bothers me, but not as much as before. To know that I look like my adopted father...It makes me so...overwhelmingly <i>relieved</i> and...and I just...can’t explain how...amazingly <i><b>free</b></i> I feel.” Through his explanation, Kakuzu could only stare. It had been a strange up and down of emotions for him, to listen. He felt angry that parents would harm their child for no reason or for something that wasn’t discipline. Then, he felt sad. That little pit in his, new, heart, as it dropped to send blood into his veins. A little pinging that made his threads react a bit. The last feeling he felt was a mixture of confusion and sadness and...a bit of pain. He hadn’t felt in a very long time. No...He had felt it. Vaguely. Right before he’d died. He didn’t know why his last thought had been of Hidan.</p>
<p>Izuku glanced up, when he felt a hand on his closed fingers, which were around the handle of the paddle. The look on Kakuzu’s face was, inexplicably, warm. It was one of decades of sorrow, being masked over. But, now, it was mixing with another emotion or emotions. Was...Was that worry? Fear? Confusion?<br/>“Hm? Is something wrong?” The ancient man spoke quietly.<br/>“No child should have to endure that kind of childhood.” Izuku sighed and gave a tired smile.<br/>“Hidan did.” That made that hand jerk back. Surprise. That was new.<br/>“Hidan killed his own parents, when he was ten years old. I had to weasel his past from him, one night. Even if we don’t need to sleep, we do sometimes. Usually to pass time or to give our bodies a break. It was the first time I’d ever seen so much fear on his face. A year after he adopted me, he had a pretty bad nightmare. Don’t get me wrong, he has nightmares on the regular, but...This one I had to wake him from. He wouldn’t wake on his own. Lost my goddamn arm that night. I got him to sit up and...He was shaking.” Izuku took a deep breath, while Kakuzu thought, briefly, about the very rare scared look that he’d seen on his old partner’s face. It was disconcerting, considering what the man had gone through, in his life. It told him he was still human.</p>
<p>The greenette sighed and continued.<br/>“He told me about what his parents did to him. It...makes my childhood look normal.” That startled his companion, a bit.<br/>“He told me that, even before he was blessed, he would be submerged in boiling water...trampled by horses...They tried to gouge his eyes out, repeatedly...It only got worse after he was blessed. Knowing he was immortal, he’d be, brutally, dismembered. He’d have his organs cut out of him to be used in the organ trade...for money. He told me that the most painful thing he’d ever gone through was when he was nine. His skin and muscle was flayed from him, all over his body, before he was thrown into boiling salt water.” A look of pain crossed the boy’s face, eyes closing, as if he were trying not to cry.<br/>“It was the first time I’d ever seen that man cry. The trauma of his past came spilling forth and...I don’t blame him for going crazy...Even then...after he killed his parents...He, still, wasn’t exempt from pain. Living on the streets, until he became a ninja...And then being dropped mere months after he graduated. He…” Kakuzu felt his heart constrict. Not only due to the story he was being told, but...Izuku had been excruciatingly calm this entire time. From when he ripped his own heart out to when he led him to the boat. In all that time, he’d been calm and soft spoken. Telling of the childhood Hidan had gone through...It broke him. To be telling what the albino had gone through was enough to chew and eat at the boy. </p>
<p>Izuku took a deep breath.<br/>“He was shuffled through the market. A twelve year old boy that couldn’t die. He was used. In both ways you’re thinking of. He was a toy. A thing to play with, until it broke. When they thought they had no more use for him, he was passed onto the next person that would pay for him. Pass, pay, use, break, pass, pay, use, break. He went through this cycle for six years. Until he, finally, left. He was alone...until he was partnered with you. He was so happy. He could be around someone that didn’t want to use and discard him...someone who found him useful and, though you and him bickered, someone who wanted him around.” Kakuzu looked down to his, cloaked, lap. Had he really had such an impact on Hidan’s life? On his mood? They fought to hell and back, but…<br/>“You were good for him. No matter what you think, you did him a world of good. Before I found him, you were the only person he could call family.” That made red and green eyes jerk up.<br/>“What? Family?”<br/>“Yes…Family. When he misses you, he prays for longer than normal. A month ago was the longest. The deer told me he just laid there...for three hours.” <br/>“The deer?”<br/>“Yes. As a Nara, I have a connection with the deer on our island. The whole island is what’s left of The Nara Clan’s forest. I can tell you more of this world, as we drift. The current’s gotten stronger.” As they settled in to wait, Izuku told what he could, answering Kakuzu’s questions as best as he could. In all this, Kakuzu wondered what Hidan was doing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Pacing. That’s what Hidan was doing. While they were both immortal, Izuku isn’t one to take more time than he says things would. It’d been nearly four days. He could smell the ozone and atmosphere in the air. There was a storm brewing. The sun slipped below the horizon, leaving its residual rays to light the foliage and the few, flickering, ears of the deer. He felt a doe nudge his side and, habitually, went to pat her snout, when she butt her head against his side, as if to get him to stop. He did, mid turn. She motioned with her head and started walking. When she looked back, he followed behind her. He was led to the other side of the island, where, in the waning light of the evening, he spotted a dot on the horizon. He could see someone rowing. His expression split into a, blindingly, glorious grin, as he waved.<br/>“IZUKU!”</p>
<p>When the boat made landfall, Hidan wrapped the fourteen year old in a crushing hug, his face falling into green and grey hair.<br/>“You were gone so long...I was getting worried…” He heard a gentle laugh and felt his adopted son’s hands go under his bangs, which had been pulled forward by his frantic hugging.<br/>“There’s a storm coming...I thought you got caught in it…” He heard Izuku let out a soundless chuckle, the air passing through his nose a bit. Then, he heard something from the boat. The greenette stepped back, finding Hidan’s eyes on him.<br/>“I took so long, because...I had another passenger.” He turned to the side and gestured with his whole hand. Dark pink met red and green, as a brunette man stepped from the dinghy. His hair was to his waist, he had stitches on his face, and he was wrapped in a black cloak. He barely recognized it as the one he’d worn after he was sewn back together. His tongue fell dry, as he heard his own name cascade from a voice he never thought he’d hear again.<br/>“Hidan…” </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“...K...Kakuzu?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Found</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Whatever he expected, it wasn’t the tears that formed in Hidan’s eyes.</p><p>As they arched down his cheek, he found the man darting forward. When he impacted his chest, he...didn’t really know how to react, at first. He hadn’t been hugged, since…<br/>“Kakuzu…” The silverette’s voice was quiet and choked and...and he could feel Hidan’s chakra freaking out with torrents of emotions. He couldn’t pick them out, they were flooding so fast. They mixed and crashed into each other so...blistering. The mental overload was intense, he could tell, just by his chakra. Kakuzu put his hands to the shorter’s back, from around his waist. His biceps were pinned to his sides, so it was the only way he could reciprocate. Thirty seconds later, Hidan’s chakra spiked and dropped to a resting lull. If he hadn’t been holding onto him, Hidan would have toppled to the side. As the brunette stared down at the unconscious man, he felt confusion trickle into his chest again. </p><p>Izuku sighed, quietly.<br/>“This is the second time I’ve ever seen him faint.” He found himself responding, dumbly.<br/>“First time for me…” <br/>“Think you can carry him? Or should I?” Kakuzu had regained some strength, on the way back, so he nodded and lifted the man over his shoulder. The greenette led him across the forest, as he watched the deer come to investigate. A buck walked into the path, looking like the leader, due to how massive his antlers were. The teenager just brushed his hand over the side of the buck’s neck and leaned his forehead against its head. When he stepped back, the deer snorted and sneezed, before bowing its head, as if in understanding and respect. When it trotted back into the foliage, Izuku nodded.<br/>“He will tell the others you’re welcome here. I transferred my memories of my trip away.”<br/>“Ah…” </p><p>When they reached the cabin, he had Kakuzu put his father on one of the beds.<br/>“You can use my bed, for now. I don’t sleep much. Too many memories.” Izuku walked out to the front, being followed again. He brought two glasses of water to the table and nodded to the brunette.<br/>“You must be dehydrated.” Red and green eyes followed his form, as he moved to the small stove. He remembered that Hidan did, in fact, like to eat. Even if he didn’t need to eat, he could feel hungry, sometimes. He heard a soft chuckle from the boy that had saved him, his voice a touch despondent.<br/>“It’s so hard to get him to eat anything green...He used to ingest blood, for Jashin-sama’s sake…” He felt himself hum.<br/>“I see that hasn’t changed.” A few minutes later, a plate sat in front of him. Rice and chicken.<br/>“We don’t have much food that will spoil. We're pretty low on everything. I’ll have to go shopping in a few days.” They met eyes.<br/>“Thank you.” Izuku smiled a little.<br/>“You’re very welcome.” A few bites in, Kakuzu hesitated and looked up. There had been a sorrow in those pink and green, heterochromatic, eyes.<br/>“You...You said he’d fainted once before?”<br/>“Yes.” Izuku sat in seiza and took a sip of his water.<br/>“I had taken a walk around the island. It was about two months after he adopted me. When I came around into view of the house, he ran out and nearly tackled me to the ground. He’d woken from a nightmare and, since I wasn’t there, he thought I'd abandoned him. When I got him to calm a little, he told me he’d dreamed that my immortality wore out and I was killed, leaving him all alone. At the time, I’d have never thought I would ever see The Immortal Hidan panic. He fainted a minute later. It was just like earlier. His emotions dropping to zero in a single moment and cutting off his brain’s ability to process. He just drops.” Kakuzu stared out the window. The sky had turned a dark purple, starting to filter into midnight blue, flecked with stars. </p><p>He remembered seeing Hidan panic, maybe, twice in the time he’d known him. The first time they’d fought alongside each other was odd. After the younger had gotten himself cut up into pieces, he was trying to think about how to put him back together. He’d started walking away from his head to go get his arm. When he looked back, upon hearing some sounds, he found Hidan, still in ritual form, staring at him. His eyes were wide and his pupils small...His mouth was just barely open and he could tell that, had he been connected to the rest of his body, he would have been hyperventilating, slightly. As soon as he was put back together, Hidan just sat there, until his ritual form wore off. His eyes had been closed. He’d just stood up and grinned at him, before apologizing for making him wait. </p><p>The other time...Well...it had been sometime in the middle of their time working together. He’d gone to the bounty office, while Hidan wandered, having waved at him, when he said to not make a scene. He’d found him, many hours later, in a drainage pipe, outside the small town. He was shivering and wet and wide eyed. His blunted nails were digging into his arms, leaving stripes of pink in their wakes. That had been the one and only time, before today, he’d seen Hidan cry. He’d first seen the pink splotch between his eyes, before seeing how swollen his eyes had gotten. The corners of his eyes had turned red-pink, almost like he’d popped a blood vessel. As soon as he saw him, a sleeve came up to rub at his face. He still saw those tears sparkle in the faint moonlight. Hidan didn’t stand from his position on the ground. His knees were up to his face. Had it been any darker, he may have missed the blood on the ground, around him. They were just flecks and a couple droplets, but he knew. He’d sighed and stitched him up, knowing he wouldn’t be able to walk, unless he did. He was given a signature grin, as he stood and followed him, without a word.</p><p>It was a smile that tried to hide the pain.</p><p>But he knew. He knew it hid his pain and fear and...He still didn’t know why it bothered him. </p><p>Kakuzu looked back to his food, before asking a question, he believed would answer this feeling he had in his chest.<br/>“Hey...Does...Does Hidan have sensory issues?” Izuku looked up.<br/>“He does. Sounds. Smells.” That would explain the second time. The first time...He must have thought he was abandoning him. It was the only, real, answer. <br/>“Usually fire...ash, more specifically. Flammable oil. Ch...Children crying.” He’d stuttered, making the man look up and over to the fourteen year old, across from him. He heard a breath enter non-essential lungs.<br/>“He can see fire without having any issues...It’s just...The feeling and smells he has issues with.” There was a, sudden, droplet of guilt that splashed at Kakuzu’s heart. He’d used Hidan as a distraction, during their combo fighting. He’d used his Searing Migraine technique a lot. As he watched Izuku down the last of his water and stand up, he found the boy meeting his eyes.<br/>“When you’re done, you should rest. I know you were just pulled out of death, but your body still needs time to adjust back to being alive. The room next to his is mine. You can rest there. If...If he wakes up, before you finish up, let him know I’m taking a walk. I’ll, mostly, be on the other side of the island. If I’m not, ask the deer. They know where I am, as long as I’m on the island.” Kakuzu nodded and took another spoonful of his food. It was still warm. He noticed the warm air around the greenette and understood that the boy may have noticed him a little out of it and kept his food warm.</p><p>As he watched him leave, the man felt the air cool. It was a nice night. Just cold enough to ward away the heat of the day. He put a hand to his arm. It also cooled the sweltering flames of Hell.</p><p>He heard the quiet snores Hidan made, from his room, honestly expecting them to be louder. His mind wandered a little, as he ate a bit more. When Izuku had touched his hand, as he’d sat down...He felt like he’d felt it before. But...He couldn’t remember. The hand had been bigger and slightly thin. Cool, yet still with a warmth.</p><p>He felt his brows knit.</p><p> </p><p>Who had it been?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Grave Prayers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I think this is the biggest chapter I've EVER written for ANY story O_O</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He’d woken and turned over on his bed. His...bed? Had it...been a dream? He sat up and felt his hands cover his face. He gave a bitter and sorrowful laugh. Of course it would have been. Of course his mind would plague him with such a wonderful dream, only to have it ripped away, as soon as he woke. Sometimes...Sometimes he wished he <i>could</i> die, so that he could see them again. Even the thought of eternal damnation and pain didn’t stop him from yearning for death, at times. He sided and rubbed at his eyes, before swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. He should get dressed. As he stood, he realized he was still in his pants and sandals. Did...Did he just collapse, still wearing his clothes? What had made him so tired, when sleep wasn’t a necessity to him?</p>
<p>Walking out the door, he knocked on Izuku’s door. It was strange to not see him up, since he either got up at the ass crack of dawn or didn’t sleep. He heard a soft grunt.<br/>“Izuku? Are you alright? You’re usually up, by now?” There were footsteps that approached the door. They were heavier than the teenager’s...and familiar. When the door opened, inward, he found himself staring at a collar. What? Tipping his head back, he looked into red and green eyes. He felt his jaw tremble, as he mumbled.<br/>“It...wasn’t a dream…” Kakuzu rubbed his face.<br/>“Mh?” He saw the confusion in those pink eyes, another mutter on the man’s lips.<br/>“Were...the past four thousand years the dream? Was...Izuku the dream?” </p>
<p>Kakuzu blinked. Man. That mental crash really screwed with Hidan’s perception of what was real.<br/>“Izuku went on a walk, last night. I take it he hasn’t returned?” The silverette seemed to relax, knowing nothing had been a dream. He, suddenly, felt a bit awkward.<br/>“Um...I just...woke up, myself…” He hadn’t talked to him...Hadn’t seen him in thousands of years. The brunette nodded and started walking down the hall, after closing the door. The front of the cabin was silent and cold. He hadn’t returned. He couldn't even track him, seeing as it seemed the teen’s injury had healed and his threads had returned to him, sometime while he was asleep. He remembered that Izuku told him where he would, probably be.<br/>“He said he would be on the other side of the island.” Hidan nodded and followed him through the brush and trees. The deer seemed to lead them, as well. </p>
<p>When they saw the water again, they found Izuku. On either side of the path were stone walls that came to their knees, the walkway bordered off by stones and shells and...paper flowers? The greenette was sat in a Jashin’s pentagram, holding his pendant to his lips, his eyes closed. Reaching the outside of the circle, they found what he was facing. <i>Graves.</i></p>
<p>Both men felt their eyes widen, upon reading the names engraved upon the stones. <br/>“Izuku…” Pink and green eyes opened a bit at Hidan’s soft tone. His voice came out, matching it.<br/>“I felt they should have a proper burial.” That was when they noticed that the ground was dug up.<br/>“They didn’t deserve to just stay on those islands...some in pieces…” He’d rethought the graves he’d already made and found himself believing they would have wanted to be buried like the family they had been.<br/>“The sand, here, is different. This island, engorged with chakra, will never uncover their bodies...will never take them out to sea...will never let them rot.” His religious pendant lifted to his lips again, in prayer, as the two men felt their eyes pass over the names.</p>
<p>Nagato. Yahiko. Konan. Deidara. Sasori. Kisame. Itachi. Obito.</p>
<p>That last name threw them off a bit, before Izuku opened his eyes again.<br/>“Obito was the real name of Tobi.” They both nodded in understanding. The small graveyard was decorated, beautifully. With shells and stones and Konan’s paper flowers. Each grave was marked out by an outline of polished sea glass. Each with a different color. At the base of the headstones were forehead protectors, emblems slashed through, along with other things that may have belonged to the deceased. Their rings, most noticeably. What they noticed, after that, was what was placed, buried halfway, in front of Kisame’s grave. <i>Samehada.</i> Izuku smiled a bit, in his prayer.<br/>“I found him. He was buried under sand and rock, on an island that was next to where Kisame was. He was barely alive. Told me he was, finally dying. Being a sentient sword, he had a chakra signature of his own. Without any wielder, for so long, his supply was running out. Even when I picked him up, he was too weak to draw upon my own. Before dying, Samehada asked me to bring him to Kisame, where his scales recreated the rest of his body, so I could transport him. I gave Samehada the burial a sentient sword would want. I buried him with his favorite wielder.” Hidan and Kakuzu looked back to the sword. They ever thought it could, actually, die.</p>
<p>Kakuzu turned back.<br/>“It took you three days to find me. How did you get them back here in a night’s worth of hours?”<br/>“I had an idea of where they were and used the wind to help me there, faster. As I wasn’t looking for where my gut was telling me to go, I was able to get to them quicker. I had to return with two at a time. My boat didn’t have space for more.” Four trips.<br/>“I’ve been praying since three.” Hidan looked startled.<br/>“You’ve been praying for four hours?” Izuku nodded and looked up to him.<br/>“There are too many good people that were corrupted by the nature of the world. Corrupted by human nature...by greed. When peace is forged, there will always be someone that wants to take and will start a war over it. A never ending cycle. I...fear that, had I not found you, I may have fed into this cycle of hatred and pain.” Hidan crouched and put a hand on his son’s shoulder.<br/>“But you didn’t. You can’t dwell on what could have been. You’ll only make yourself go fuckin’ crazy.” The greenette stood and scuffed the blood symbol away, before making to take another step. Seems his legs had fallen asleep. The albino chuckled, gently, as he caught the teenager.<br/>“You were sitting there too long.” Izuku smiled a bit.<br/>“Thanks, Tou-san.”</p>
<p>Kakuzu smirked.<br/>“Tou-san, huh?” Milk skin looked like some strawberry was added to it.<br/>“Uh...Yeah…” Izuku laughed some.<br/>“I started calling him that, when I was eleven. He let me call him that, even if he feels it’s weird to be called it.” Hidan looked half embarrassed-half sheepish, before a hand pat his head. That wasn’t Izuku’s hand.</p>
<p>He looked up, meeting Kakuzu’s line of sight with a smile. It was different than normal...or what he remembered as normal. There was less of a jokester, replaced by gratitude. </p>
<p>The quiet moment was broken by an alert going off. It startled Kakuzu’s hand off the shorter’s silver hair. Hidan sweatdropped and pulled his phone out. Izuku smiled at the older a bit and pulled his own from his pocket. His was different from Hidan’s by a long shot. His father’s was more of the smartphone variety, while his was a sliding flip phone. Red and green eyes sparked with understanding. They were the same kind of device.<br/>“Oh! I forgot about training!” Izuku nodded.<br/>“I let them know, last night, that we might not be there, on account of a new person joining us.” The greenette turned to Kakuzu.<br/>“There are two people that we’re friends with. One more recently than the other.” He pulled up a photo on his phone.<br/>“This is Bakugo Katsuki. He’s my best friend. And this…” He moved to the next one.<br/>“...is Yagi Toshinori. We made friends with him, about, two and a half weeks ago.” The brunette tipped his head a little.<br/>“He seems...ill.”<br/>“He’ll tell you, if he feels that he trusts you. Anyways, they both know Tou-san’s my 144 times great grandfather, but they don’t say anything about it. They just accept it.” He nodded and, after both Jashinists gave the graves a short prayer, they returned to the cabin for breakfast.</p>
<p>Izuku was finished first, having made the others eggs and toast, while he only had toast. <br/>“I’ll be heading to the store, today. Is there anything you’d like, in specific? I’ll also need your measurements, Kakuzu-san. I’ll be getting you some clothes.” He saw his father blush, faintly, as if remembering that his old partner was nearly nude under the cloak. He forced down a laugh and passed the taller man some paper and a pen, for when he was ready. Pink and green eyes flicked to Hidan.<br/>“I already know what you want.” The albino grinned, sheepishly.<br/>“Am I really that predictable?” Izuku gave him a teasing look.<br/>“Suffocatingly so.” A boisterous laugh left Hidan’s mouth, making his son tumble after. His smile was so much like the silverette’s. Kakuzu could tell that it had been like that, since forever. The way someone smiled may reflect who they feel comfortable around, but it can also be a genetic trait, inherited from those that came before him. Hidan had come before him. <br/>“Do either of you have jobs? You were talking about going to the store.” Izuku nodded.<br/>“While we don’t work, at the moment, we’re selling the junk that’s on that beach over there.” He pointed to the shoreline.<br/>“My friend and I are cleaning it for strength training. We sell the metal scrap for money. We’re splitting it three ways, since Toshinori-san is also helping.” The brunette nodded again and went back to finishing his breakfast.</p>
<p>Suddenly, Izuku sounded like he remembered something.<br/>“Oh! I almost forgot. Tou-san.” Hidan looked up, wiping a paper towel over the yolk dripping down his face.<br/>“Hm?”<br/>“I’m surprised you’re not confused how he’s alive.”<br/>“I guess I was so in shock that I didn’t really think about it.” Kakuzu looked a touch uncomfortable, much to Hidan’s confusion. The greenette took a breath.<br/>“When I found him, he was dead.” Light brows quirked up.<br/>“Huh? The…”<br/>“You passed out, before you really could see…”<br/>“See what?” Kakuzu put his hand over his chest, where his, donated, heart pumped blood through his body.<br/>“Izuku cheated the system.” Hidan still looked confused.<br/>“What?” The other man’s eyes closed.<br/>“He had a feeling and...cut his heart out to give to me.” The albino snapped his head back to his son.<br/>“YOU FUCKING DID <i><b>WHAT?!”</b></i> </p>
<p>Izuku sighed.<br/>“You didn’t see the stitches on my chest, last night. It was too dark and you were feeling so many different emotions.” He closed his eyes.<br/>“Something told me I had nothing to lose trying. It was actually kinda funny. As soon as his organs started up again, he thought I was you, for a moment.” Kakuzu scratched his head.<br/>“My vision was still in pales for a few minutes. I saw light hair and a pink eye and only knew one person with both. When he opened his other eye, I realized he was shorter than you were.”<br/>“Kakuzu-san stitched me up, when he was, literally, able to come back to the land of the living, fully.” Said man sighed.<br/>“It was the least I could do. You brought me back. Before that...My memories are blurry, but I remember being reanimated during the war…” Hidan nodded.<br/>“I read about that war. It was fucked up. The snake fucker’s apprentice brought you and the others back with the Edo Tensei. That must have been weird as fuck.” <br/>“It was.” Izuku nodded to them.<br/>“What I remembered was about the heart you have, now. Though it’s only speculation, I believe that, since it’s an immortal heart, it’s possible for you to live forever, as long as it doesn’t get destroyed. Honestly, I could continue to give you replacements, but...If you have one, then what’s the need for more.” The looks he was being given by his companions made something leap in his chest. Both men had <i>hope</i> in their eyes. </p>
<p>Hidan really had missed Kakuzu.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He may have gotten some odd looks, due to shopping in the men’s section for clothes much larger than himself, but he, honestly, didn’t give a shit. When he got to the counter, the cashier looked incredulous. He facepalmed and groaned.<br/>“My dad burned his clothes off with his quirk…” He held down a shudder, as he thought of Hisashi. His, slightly embarrassed, tone seemed to be enough for the woman, who rang him up without a word. He paid and thanked her, before taking the bag and walking outside. When he was in an alley, he concentrated. He found out that he could focus his wind chakra into a state that mimicked normal chakra and used it for some basic fuinjutsu. He sealed the bags into a seal on his right wrist, before going to the grocery store. </p>
<p>He nearly bumped into a familiar person.<br/>“Izuku-shounen!” The blonde gave him a short hug.<br/>“How was your trip?”<br/>“Oh. It was very...um...informational.”<br/>“I hear you came across someone important.”<br/>“I did. Would you like to meet him?”<br/>“I would love to.” Izuku nodded.<br/>“I should call Katsuki. He’d want to meet him, too.” As he went around, getting food, he had to get things that didn’t need a fridge. Hidan would need to come with him for that. No person, in their right mind, would sell a fourteen year old a refrigerator. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Back on Nara Island, Kakuzu stared out at the skyline, finding the buildings far far taller than he remembered ever seeing a building of any type being. Hidan laughed from his place on the couch.<br/>“Yeah. Weirded me out, too, when I first saw them. It’s not even the biggest city in Japan.”<br/>“City?”<br/>“Yeah. They’re like massive villages. The city we’re just off of is called Musutafu and is about...um...550? clicks wide.” Kakuzu’s eyes blew wide.<br/>“Holy shit!”<br/>“Yeah, I know! Musutafu isn’t even the biggest city in the world. Not even in Japan.” The brunette looked awed.<br/>“How did he even find us?”<br/>“His instincts are powerful and accurate things. Here.” Hidan stood and walked to a cabinet, pulling a map from inside. It was pretty big.<br/>“This is how Izuku explained it to me.” He unfolded it onto the floor, showing that it was about half the length of the couch long and tall. He pointed to a red star sticker, which was on the side of Japan.<br/>“This is where we are.” He moved his hand down to another sticker, which was white.<br/>“This is where he found me. The Ogasawara Islands...Around there, actually.” That...was a long way away...and in the middle of the ocean.<br/>“Maybe we can ask him where he found you.” When he saw Kakuzu staring at the map, he gave a nervous smile.<br/>“This is only part of the world. We don’t really have a full map-Wait.” Hidan remembered something and went back into the bedrooms, coming back with a book, the sides covered in tabs.</p>
<p>He opened it to a page and handed it to Kakuzu.<br/>“This is the whole thing. I forgot Izuku’s bag was still here.” Multicolored eyes peered down at the continents of the world, before brushing his fingers over the stiff, but flexible, tabs.<br/>“What are these?”<br/>“Oh. That’s Izuku’s history textbook. He’s on a break from school, right now. He goes back in a week. Those mark out things he needs to remember for his assignments.” Sitting at the table, he told Kakuzu about some things Izuku hadn’t gotten to the previous night, the other man listening, intently, and filing away important information for later. He never thought he’d be so invested in anything that came out of Hidan’s mouth...and, yet, here they were.</p>
<p>It was a couple hours later that a phone went off with an alert.<br/>“Izuku’s bringing Katsuki and Toshinori-san over. They should be here in fifteen minutes.” Through the time they’d been talking, Kakuzu had learned a lot. The different heroes of Japan were a focal point of his, along with the law that quirks couldn’t be used in public if one wasn’t licensed. He looked up and into pink irises.<br/>“I was told that quirks are registered under unique names. What did Izuku put his under?”<br/>“His wind and shadow manipulation came after he registered, so he put his under Voodoo. It’s...uh...a bit difficult to explain what voodoo is. Um...It has to do with spirits and I’d have to ask Izuku for a book on it. There’s something they use that works kinda like how he and I work in our ritual forms. When it’s injured, the person is injured.” Kakuzu nodded and tipped his head, as Hidan chuckled.<br/>“I had to register, too. I’m immortal, so I really had no choice. They actually let me use the name Jashin’s Blessing.” That made a bark of a laugh come from his companion. It made a smile come to his face. It was rare he got to hear Kakuzu laugh.</p>
<p>That was when they heard Izuku’s voice.<br/>“Tou-san! We’re here!” The greenette streaked inside and dropped off the clothes bag by the brunette, before starting to put the food away. The man got the hint and slipped into the back to change, taking the bag with him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Outside, Toshinori and Katsuki had decided to walk up to the house normally. The deer seemed to really like them and they took this opportunity to pet them. When they came to the door, they found the greenette finishing up putting the groceries away. From the back of the cabin, another man came to the front. He was tall and a muscular broad. His skin was coffee with milk colored and his hair came down to his waist, a dark, ashen, brown. It was his eyes that caught their attention. Pupilless emerald green, surrounded by red sclerae. They were both striking and a bit creepy, at the same time. It was like they looked past their souls and could see every sin they’d committed. As they broke away from his eyes, they found the other unique feature. He had stitches holding the split sides of his mouth closed. In all honesty, he was pretty handsome. He wore a dark green jacket over a grey, short sleeved, shirt. He was fixing his dark blue pants, which went to his ankles, like Hidan’s did. They were taped at the cuffs, leading down to his sandals, which were similar to Hidan’s, as well. He moved his hands to fix the collar of his jacket, showing them his dark brown nails, the paint chipped and cracked. Izuku looked over his shoulder.<br/>“Right. I forgot to get you a mask. But, I was able to find this, when I went back to where I found you.” He put his hand to the seal in his arm. When he pulled it back, a metal plate sat in his fingers. It had an arrow on it, pointing down and without the point, a line cut across it. It looked even older than Hidan’s forehead protector.<br/>“If you’d like, I can get you a cloth similar to the one you had and stitch it onto it.” He nodded, his voice sounding smooth and deep.<br/>“I would like that. Thank you.” Izuku nodded in response and turned to the two blondes.<br/>“Toshinori-san. Katsuki.” They looked over.<br/>“This is Kakuzu-san. Kakuzu-san, these are the two I showed you pictures of. Yagi Toshinori and Bakugo Katsuki.” He turned to them and gave a little head bow.<br/>“A pleasure to meet you.” It took both of them a split second to register, before reciprocating the action, while turning a bit pink.</p>
<p>Hidan was next to Toshinori, handing him a wet napkin, as he started coughing. Kakuzu’s ears pricked up and his Jiongu started reacting. Organ troubles. No...Missing organs. Seeing his curious expression and the tinge of concern in his eyes, the older blonde sighed shakily and delved into the story…<i>again.</i> When it was over, the brunette nodded.<br/>“I’ve had my fair share of missing organs. Not for extended periods of time, but...I do know how it feels.” Hidan helped the hero stand up straight.<br/>“Remember that time one of your hearts had a heart attack?” The taller, ancient, man made a bit of a face.<br/>“It was horrible.”<br/>“It was damn scary! You were so still and stiff! After it was over, you kicked my ass for starting to freak out on you.” The albino started laughing a little, as he backed up from the, towering, blonde.</p>
<p>After talking a bit more, they all sat down. Well...Besides Izuku and Katsuki. They went out the back and through the forest.<br/>“You were gone a long time.”<br/>“I left again. The night I brought Kakuzu-san back. I had to bury some people.” Before his friend could respond, they came upon the small graveyard. As soon as his eyes ran over the first name, he seemed to understand.<br/>“Oh…” Hidan had told them about the organization he’d been a part of.<br/>“Is this what you wanted to show me?”<br/>“Part of it.” The, slightly, shorter teenager stopped in front of a specific grave.<br/>“Deidara?” Izuku nodded.<br/>“I have a hunch.” Red eyes went a bit wide. A hunch was a light itching in his instincts.<br/>“What is it?”<br/>“Deidara fought using clay infused with explosion chakra.” The implications were wild, but...Hidan’s immortality had endured for so long…<br/>“You think he’s my...however manyth great grandfather?”<br/>“It’s a possibility.” Bakugo was quiet, before offering his hand.<br/>“I know you need my blood. Do it. You’ve got my curiosity.” They sat down at the head of the area, staring back inland, facing the headstones. </p>
<p>Izuku produced his switchblade and had Katsuki do the honors. He dripped some of his blood onto the seal, which inked the scroll.<br/>“That’ll take some time. If I’m right and he is your ancestor, it’ll take about ten minutes.” Bakugo stared at the graves.<br/>“You...You found them at the same time you brought him back here…”<br/>“Yeah. I need to tell you both how I even revived him.”<br/>“Revived?”<br/>“Yeah. I’ll tell you in a bit.”</p>
<p>The ten minutes went by and the scroll glowed. Pulling it over, Izuku nodded.<br/>“I was right. 146 generations.”<br/>“Holy shit...That’s awesome! From Hidan’s stories, Deidara got to blow shit up!” The greenette chortled. He knew that, had he been right, Katsuki would have been elated.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When they returned to the cabin, Hidan tilted his head. Izuku gave a smirk.<br/>“It’s official.”<br/>“What?” The others looked over, as the boy bore some teeth into his side smile.<br/>“It’s official that Deidara got himself laid before he died!” Hidan nearly choked on his laughter. Kakuzu coughed back a startled laugh, while Toshinori caught the spritz of blood, coming up his throat, with a napkin. Katsuki, also in the startled boat, spit laughed. The four of them hadn’t seen that coming at all! When they calmed some, Izuku explained.<br/>“Katsuki is to Deidara what I am to you, Tou-san.” The albino ruffled the pale blonde’s hair.<br/>“Your quirk makes more sense, now.” As everyone settled again, Bakugo turned to his friend.<br/>“You said you’d explain how you brought back Kakuzu-san. We were told that he was killed, the first time, by Uzumaki Naruto.” The brunette grumbled about orange wearing fox brats, making Hidan laugh a little. <br/>“Well...That’s a bit of a weird story. When I found him, I had the urge to see if an immortal heart would drag him out of the afterlife. And...well...it did.” The two blondes were silent a moment, before ruby eyes went wide.<br/>“You...You gave him yours…” Izuku nodded.<br/>“I did. I cut it out and tried to see if it would work.” There was a little scoff from Kakuzu.<br/>“Forget cutting it out, you ripped it from your chest. There was a hole the size of your fist.” Izuku scratched his head.<br/>“Yeah. Ya got me.” Both blondes looked a bit pale. The object of their stares cleared his throat and motioned to the stitched man.<br/>“He stitched me up, so my heart grew back faster. Anyways. Since my hearts are immortal, I theorize that Kakuzu-san is immortal, as well. When I say immortal, I mean to time and age. This is speculation on my part, though. The cells in that heart have my chakra in it. It will renew the blood that pumps through it and, by extension, renew his cells at a faster rate than normal. What I mean is that his cells will constantly renew themselves, when they’re about to die. This means that injuries will heal faster and organs won’t fail or become diseased. He will never feel what it’s like to go into cardiac arrest again. He won’t even gain another wrinkle, no matter how long that heart beats in His chest. Whether that’s a year...a hundred years...forever...If I’m right...He has the possibility to live indefinitely, like Hidan and I will.” Kakuzu looked awestruck. It was still, technically, pseudo-immortality, but, if he kept himself safe,...He really could live forever. </p>
<p>As Hidan shifted the couch cushion, the brunette didn’t know why the thought of immortality made him feel so…</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <i>Happy.</i>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Building Forward</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As he walked towards the steps of the most prestigious hero school in all of Japan...He felt nervous. He and Katsuki had both passed. Bakugo got himself the top slot on the leader board, with sixty-five villain points and twelve rescue points. It made him super excited and an excited Katsuki could be hilarious. Izuku, himself, got fourth place, which surprised him. He’d, honestly, not been counting his points. When he saw the leader board, he was floored! Forty five villain points and twenty five rescue. He had to utilize his immortality and other techniques, since they were up against machines, instead of people. His shadow manipulation came in real handy.</p>
<p>When he reached the door, he found it excessively tall. The sight he came to see, when he pushed it open, made him hold in a laugh. Katsuki had his feet up on the desk and the blue-haired Iida was trying to get him to put them down.<br/>“Oh, come on. I’m just chilling. My feet aren’t even touching the desk, Dude.”<br/>“It’s still school property!” He tipped his head at the taller teenager.<br/>“Does...Does it really bother you?” He got a sharp nod and put his feet down.<br/>“Sorry.” Both of them turned their heads, when they heard Izuku hum.<br/>“Already making people uncomfortable, huh?” The blonde lit up and got out of the seat to hug him.<br/>“We got into the same class!” Iida came over, after they let go of each other.<br/>“Greetings! I am Iida Tenya!” Izuku held his hand out.<br/>“Izuku. I dropped my family name six years ago.” As his hand was shook, he found curious blue-violet eyes peering at him past the boy’s glasses.<br/>“Ah...Adopted.”<br/>“I see. I recognize you from the exam. Your quirk is very...unique.”<br/>“Yeah. I know it can be...strange and a bit…” Bakugo gave him a look.<br/>“Weird? Anxiety inducing?”<br/>“Yeah. That.” Another boy looked over.<br/>“Seeing that rebar go right through you was terrifying!” He had red hair.<br/>“Kirishima Eijiro.” They shook hands and Izuku bit his tongue to keep from laughing. Katsuki was staring. He’s so gay, it’s funny!</p>
<p>That was when their teacher came in, making the very few who recognized him surprised and a bit giddy. Izuku and Katsuki were two of them.<br/>“My name is Aizawa Shota. I will be your homeroom teacher for the year. Please put on your PE uniforms and meet me on the field.” Well...That was sudden. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>In the locker rooms, he found himself stared at. He sighed. The top of his left hand was stitched onto his palm. He turned to them and deadpanned.<br/>“My hand got cut off, when I was training, this morning. I heal really fast. These stitches should be gone by the time we get out to the field.” Bakugo pat his shoulder.<br/>“Catching knives with your bare hands again?”<br/>“Yeah. Tou-san was helping me. I grabbed the blade, instead of the handle.” <br/>“Must’ve been hilarious.”<br/>“Really was. It was made even better by the fact that the three of us weren’t even fazed.” The blonde spit a bit.<br/>“What was Kakuzu-san’s expression?!” Izuku mimicked the man’s, patented, ‘these-fucking-idiots’ deadpan. It made Katsuki falter, when putting his pants on. He held onto the wall, trying to cough the laugh out of his lungs.<br/>“H...Holy-...Holy fucking shit! I wish I could’ve seen it!” He got a pat on the back, as he finished stepping into and pulling his sweats up. He zipped the jacket over his black tank top and turned to find Izuku already dressed.</p>
<p>They left the lockers and met the rest of the class where Aizawa had told them to. He told them about the Assessment they’d be a part of and the greenette was quick to put his hand around a brunette girl’s mouth, knowing she was about to say something that would make it more anxiety inducing. When he moved his hand, he gave her an apologetic smile, to which she reciprocated it with a forgiving one. <br/>“Bakugo Katsuki. You got first place in the exam. Come up here and stand in the circle.” He walked over and was handed a ball.<br/>“Stay in the circle and throw the ball as hard as you can.”<br/>“I...presume quirks are allowed?”<br/>“They’re encouraged.” The blonde nodded and felt the weight of the object in his fingers. He’d been practicing not breaking his bones, since he finished the training a month early. The electricity that started to form from his skin were green, but haloed in a faint orange. Bringing his arm forward, he launched the ball, an explosion on the back end. When the smoke cleared, he was standing there, looking at his hand. It was turning a little pink in placed where the heat had started to turn his flesh raw, while his middle finger was a reddish purple with his slightly broken bones. The device in Aizawa’s hand buzzed.<br/>“943 meters.”<br/>“Yosh…” He stepped back and the eyes around him traveled to Izuku, as he put a hand to his arm. That was when the tattoos were noticed. They spiraled down his arms, like vines, set in  deep black symbols that didn’t look like they meant anything.</p>
<p>When he brought his hand back, a scroll appeared in his fingers. Opening it, it was seen to have some of those symbols, as well, but blown up to fit the page. Everyone felt themselves fill with awe, as Katsuki put his hand to the center. Izuku channeled a bit of his calmed chakra into the seal, making a green aura come out of the paper. It swirled around the blonde’s hand and, in moments, the injuries were gone. He closed the scroll and returned it to the tattoo in his arm. They noticed them staring.<br/>“Uh…” The brunette girl looked a bit hyper.<br/>“What was that?”<br/>“Oh. My dad’s friend, who lives with us, made me some with part of his quirk. It partially has to do with healing.” Kakuzu had registered his power under the name of his Kinjutsu. He was looked at, oddly, but, apparently, he gave off such an imposing aura that no one questioned him. Jiongu was a very strange name...especially when it was an older set of kanji. <br/>“What about those?”<br/>“Oh. It’s part of my quirk. I can use something called Sealing Arts. I just covered my arms in the ones that can store things. The bigger they are, the bigger the thing that’s sealed is. See?” He put his left hand to a larger seal and out came a bag of extra clothes. He returned it, as the class nodded. </p>
<p>When his name was called, he had already gone through multiple options for his turn.<br/>“Izuku.” He walked forward, as the man looked at the paper again, as if for something specific. The greenette understood.<br/>“I don’t have a family name, anymore. I was adopted and my father dropped his last name, a while ago.”<br/>“Ah. I see. Please make your throw.” He nodded and put the ball on the ground, as he made the Tori seal with his hands. The wind kicked up around him and levitated the ball into the air. He felt his control waver and opened his eyes, finding Aizawa looking at him with red eyes. His hair had lifted from his shoulders. Izuku sighed and let the ball back down again.<br/>“Please tell me what I did wrong. You’re using your quirk.” The man looked astonished.<br/>“My quirk was supposed to completely cut yours off...It’s not a mutation, so it should have been, temporarily, erased.” Izuku nodded and turned a little more.<br/>“My quirk is bound to more than just the quirk gene. It’s bound to every piece of my DNA, including the quirk gene. When you activated your quirk, it made my control falter. That’s because a lot of my quirk is connected to the gene yours affects, but not all of it. I DO have a mutation typed portion, but what I was using is emitter class, like your own...Eraserhead-san.” The raven let his hair fall.<br/>“You’ve heard of me?”<br/>“More like I’ve seen you in action, saw you take down that criminal with the shotgun arms.” He was blinked at.<br/>“That was seven years ago. And at a very weird time.” He heard the questioning in his tone.<br/>“I don’t need to sleep, due to my quirk. The part that’s always active.” He was given a bewildered look, before being gestured to resume his test. </p>
<p>Making the wind pick up again, Izuku directed it pretty far up and a bit away, before speeding through hand seals. He took a deep breath and laced it with chakra.<br/>“Futon: Atsugai Bājon: Ko!(Wind Style: Pressure Damage Version: Small!)” When the air came out his lungs, he kept his hands in a firm Bird seal, so he could contain the chakra into a stream, instead of a wide scale mass. He’d modified one of the jutsus Kakuzu taught him, so that he could use it and not carve up the landscape every time he needed some serious force. It went sailing out of sight and Izuku returned to standing straight. His eyes never left the horizon, until the score came in.<br/>“896 meters.” He nodded and stepped back, cracking the vertebra in his neck that sat at the top of his shoulders. The loud pop sounded like something broke. But the teenager was fine.</p>
<p>When the tests came to an end, Izuku found himself in fourth place on the scoreboard. Not bad. The last person was the invisible girl, Hagakure Toru. She looked super dejected, before he pat her on the head.<br/>“We all did our best.” That seemed to cheer her up a bit.<br/>“Thank you...Ano...How did you know where the top of my head was?”<br/>“My air manipulation lets me...get in touch with the molecules in the air. It’s kind of like echolocation, but, also, kind of like I have a sensing quirk. I really don’t know how to explain it.” She nodded, the shifting of the air telling him she’d done so. He could feel the smile she had on her face, too. She looked happy again.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When both Izuku and Bakugo sat in their Heroics class, trying not to laugh. They knew Toshinori was an absolute newbie at teaching, but this was <i>hilarious.</i> </p>
<p>Both of them took their cases from the wall and hurried after the rest of the class.</p>
<p>Izuku was among the first few to leave the locker rooms. </p>
<p>He was stared at. It wasn’t what he wore. It’s what he DIDN’T wear. </p>
<p>All he wore was a pair of dark mahogany pants, bound with tape at the top and the ankles. The color was so dark it looked almost black at angles. His feet bore a pair of dark grey, open toed, sandals that went to just above his ankles, being taped against the cuffs of his pants. They were metal soled and heeled. The only other things he wore was a cloth around his throat, a blank metal plate on it, and his pendant, which was clasped over the sides of the cloth, which was like a slightly tight bandanna folded with the points in. It looked exactly like a forehead protector, only a little more snug. He may not need to protect his throat, but he wanted to look like his father. He had something in his hands. Two small spools, which were connected by a thick metal cable.<br/>“Uh…” He looked up to see a girl...Yaoyourozu...staring at him.<br/>“Hm? Is something wrong?”<br/>“Aren’t...you cold?”<br/>“No? Are you?” She looked a bit uncomfortable.<br/>“Yes…” <br/>“Hm...If you’re wondering about my costume choice, I don’t need to worry as much about physical attacks on my person. The slack of a shirt lets me move much freer than clothing would.”<br/>“And...um...the cable?”<br/>“Oh. This isn’t going to be used often. It’s for my primary weapon...I should see if it fits…” He crouched and put his hand to the largest seal on his left arm. Something thick came out and into his hand, where he grabbed the handle and pulled out Hidan’s tri-bladed scythe. His father didn’t really need it anymore, now that he wasn’t sacrificing people, and told him he could use it while he was training to be a hero and through his hero career. The metal was extremely resilient and had a ton of seals on it to prevent rust and breakage. He turned it, so that he was looking at the pommel, and used his pinky to carve a little of the old stopper out, wind chakra coating its tip. When the cable end did fit, he smiled. He’d have to add some kind of attachment seal, later, so that it could be removed when he needed it to. He sealed the cables away and stood up fully, finding the rest of the students staring at him. He was spared the attention, when All Might came out and explained how the exercise would go.</p>
<p>Uraraka, the brunette from earlier, scooted over to his side, when they were told they’d be on the same team. Her face started turning pink. Probably because he was shirtless. They watched Katsuki give Iida a grin and a thumbs up, when they were partnered for the exercise. All Might shuffled the teams at random and pulled out two of the letter balls.<br/>“Team A and Team D, with Team A being heroes!” That was when they heard a groan from Bakugo.<br/>“You’ve GOT to be fucking kidding me!” Everyone turned to him, making him cover his face with his hands.<br/>“Small spaces are Izuku’s fucking element! This is gonna either be a pain in the ass or fucking impossible!” Izuku broke out laughing.<br/>“I...I think you’re emulating Tou-san a little too much…” That got a faux arrogant smirk from the blonde.<br/>“Naturally.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Standing outside the building, Izuku turned to Ochako.<br/>“Alright. I have four parts to my quirk. Two of them are kind of related. I probably won’t be using one, since we’re all allies. I can tell you that the other three parts have to do with wind manipulation, shadow manipulation, and immortality.”<br/>“I...Immortality?”<br/>“Yeah. I’m immortal and not in a cocky, arrogant, way. I’ve gotten cut into pieces before. I can’t drown or suffocate or bleed out. Tou-san’s the same.”<br/>“Wait. Didn’t you say you were adopted?”<br/>“Yeah. He’s a distant relative. Like...I’m not sure. We’re just related and he was a friend of the family, before he took me in. We found out we were blood related and...he became like my father.” She smiled.<br/>“That’s so cute!”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the building, Iida was fixing the position of the paper mache bomb. He looked over, finding Katsuki staring at the door. He looked to be thinking really hard.<br/>“Bakugo-san.” He jolted and looked over his shoulder.<br/>“Ah?”<br/>“You said this is Izuku-san’s element. How so?”<br/>“Izuku works best in small, dark, spaces. He’s a close range fighter. He can manipulate his own shadow and, as you saw this morning, can control the air. Though I’m pretty sure he won’t use the other part of his quirk, I’ll still warn you to not let him get your blood. If you do, you can count yourself out of the fight for good.” Even past his armor, Bakugo could’ve sworn he saw Tenya pale. The taller boy cleared his throat.<br/>“This room is very cramped. My quirk wouldn’t be best suited for…”<br/>“That’s fine. I can stay here and guard the room. If Izuku’s the one you end up fighting, keep moving. Try not to stay in one place for too long.” He got a nod, right as they heard their teacher call over their earpieces.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“THE HEROES MAY ENTER THE BUILDING!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Gale of Shadows</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Eyyyy I made some art for this fic!</p><p>https://gothfoxgirl.tumblr.com/post/626118835563577344/a-comic-page-i-did-for-my-ao3-fic-immortal</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As they entered through the door, Izuku’s ears twitched.<br/>
“Go up the stairs, over there. Fourth door down.” She noticed he was talking fast.<br/>
“Go! Iida’s headed this way!” Just as she started running, Uraraka found that he was right. The armored teen rammed a shoulder into the side of the greenette’s chest, throwing him to the other side. As soon as she was gone, Izuku stood with a bit of a groan. His side was a little purple and his hands were scuffed, a bit of a scratch on his temple.<br/>
“You kick like a bus.” He stared into the white lenses of his opponent, before giving a little, ominous, grin. Tenya watched at those cuts and scrapes and, even, the fractured rib healed within the next sixty seconds. Keeping his hand on his scythe, he ran forwards, starting to swipe back and forth with a practiced hand. One of the blades scraped Iida’s armor, sending out small sparks of contact.</p><p>When he jumped back, he put a hand to the center of his chestplate. There was a groove. He looked up, finding Izuku smirking at him.<br/>
“Sharp isn’t it? It gets sharper, when I add wind to it.” Those blades had the ability to be <i>deadly.</i> He knew his classmate wouldn’t be using the scythe if he didn’t know how to use it properly. He was, deliberately, missing his vitals. Somehow placing it to his back, Izuku sped through hand signs again.<br/>
“Futon: Ten no Hauru!(Wind Style: Heaven’s Howl!)” A sharp gust of wind shoved his opponent across the floor, even if, in costume, the other teenager looked very heavy. When his back hit the wall, Iida noticed he wasn’t injured. It was supposed to be a restraining move. It was really loud, too, so it was, probably, meant to disable, as well. He pried his arms up to hold his head, so that his helmet may cushion the, almost, shrieking sound of the wind.</p><p>The gale came to a stop and Izuku leaped to the side, his body low to the ground. Tenya saw something moving, on the ground, and jumped away from the wall, turning into a somersault. He watched the greenette’s shadow stretch and follow him, making him play keep-away. He didn’t know what his shadow could do, but he didn’t want to find out. Skirting to one side, he saw the shadow take a sharp turn. When he got into a position, he caught a glimpse of Izuku, his hands held in a sign. He didn’t know, but it was a solid, textbook perfect, Rat seal. He kicked off the wall, trying to think of a way to continue. It looked like the greenette could keep this up for a decent amount of time. </p><p>He was yanked from his thoughts, as he misstepped and the shadow merged with his own. He came to a stiff stop and found his hand lifting, as Izuku’s did. Walking forward, he mimicked him, against his will. When they came to a half an arm’s length from each other, he reached into his arm seals and pulled out the capture tape, wrapping it around Iida’s arm, before switching hands and binding his wrists together. All through this, Tenya copied him, but with nothing in his hands. When he was done tying it off, he let his shadow come back to him. Iida sighed.<br/>
“That was smart. I hesitated.”<br/>
“Anything I can do, before I move upstairs?”<br/>
“If you could take my helmet off, I’d appreciate it.” It came off, showing blue hair, sticking to his forehead with sweat. He had a cut on the side of his neck, where he’d been clipped<br/>
“Huh...Sorry about that.” He looked to his scythe and found that there, indeed, was blood on one of the blades. Iida smiled a bit.<br/>
“I wasn’t being careful. It’s no fault of yours.” He reciprocated the smile and produced some bandage wrappings from a small seal. A little patch was plenty.</p><p> </p><p>When he came rolling through the door, he found Katsuki cornering Uraraka. The blonde seemed to pale a bit, as he heard a shout.<br/>
“Futon: Fuuryūdan!(Wind Style: Wind Dragon Bullet!)” Turning around, Bakugo let off an explosion that nulled most of the bullet’s velocity and force, but it didn’t stop some, excess, wind from cutting his cheek and arm.<br/>
“I see…” He smirked and ran at the greenette, getting flipped over his shoulder. Landing on his feet, he met his friend’s eyes.<br/>
“So you didn’t use the ritual...even if there’s blood on the scythe…”<br/>
“It was an accidental cut. I try not to use the ritual on people who aren’t villains.” Izuku dodged to the side, when a heated palm came for him, rolling again, when the other hand came down. Bakugo looked around, quickly, trying to think of a way to keep the greenette away from him and the prop. He had one idea that he was sure had a possibility of working. Aiming his gauntlet at his opponent’s feet, he put his hand to the pin.</p><p> </p><p>Back in the observation room, the rest of the class heard a gasp. Toru had been looking at the screen, when Katsuki aimed his gauntlet at Izuku. A handful of the students ran to the mic, upon seeing their teacher not doing anything. Kaminari, Ashido, Yaoyorozu, and Sero. The four of them cried into the microphone at once.<br/>
“Bakugo! Stop! That will kill him!”</p><p>As he pulled the pin, he answered them.<br/>
“No, it won’t!” The explosion rocked the building, filling the room with a blinding light, smoke, and a sweltering heat. Through the plume, they all heard Izuku yell, a bit annoyed.<br/>
“Jashin-sama dammit! It takes so long to regrow that, Katsuki!” When the ash settled, the greenette was still standing, but his whole chest was sheared away to the bone. His lungs were halved in a longways cross section and his heart was gone. The blonde sweatdropped.<br/>
“Whoops...That was a little too high…” A tick appeared in his friend’s brow.<br/>
“YA THINK?!” There was blood gushing everywhere, but, from what the others could see, the skin was, slowly, closing up.<br/>
“Well...At least my plan worked, somewhat. Kept you away from me and away from your objective. Izuku smirked.<br/>
“Aren’t you forgetting something? There were two of us.” Bakugo spun around, right as Uraraka landed herself on the bomb. As All Might signaled their win, the spiky blonde looked a little guilty.<br/>
“Sorry about that.”<br/>
“Not a problem. I’m just gonna need to wipe down when we get back. I’ll also be a little fatigued for a few hours, while my heart and lungs grow back.”<br/>
“Your skin should grow in a few minutes, right?”<br/>
“Yep...Uraraka-san? Are you alright? You look about to throw up.” She sucked in a breath.<br/>
“I...I overused my quirk and...um…” She was looking away from him.<br/>
“Oh. Right. Sorry. If you can wait a few minutes, my skin will heal and I can carry you. Or Katsuki can carry you, right now.” She seemed a bit...embarrassed.<br/>
“I...think we should go now. I need to lay down, but...um...I can’t get down. My...My vertigo is too much…” </p><p>Bakugo chuckled a little and reached up to her boot. When he tugged a bit, she let go and fell back, into his arms.<br/>
“Gotcha.” She smiled and held her head. While they went down the stairs, Izuku’s chest healed up halfway, his skin looking more like a fluid that was crawling over his bones. When they reached the bottom floor, they found Iida using his shoulder to help him up to his feet.<br/>
“I heard the explosion and the yell. What ha-?!” The greenette smiled sheepishly.<br/>
“Yeah. Sorry. I know it looks bad. I’ll be fine. Lemme help you out of that.” His scythe, easily, cut through the tape. Blue-violet eyes stared at where his heart should have been. There was an empty space.<br/>
“Katsuki’s aim was a bit off. He was aiming for the ground, kinda like a flash bang grenade, but the potency was more than he expected...and he was angled a bit off.” The blonde gave a nervous chuckle, still looking a bit ashamed and guilty. Had he not been carrying Uraraka, his hand would have been scratching his head.</p><p>Back in the control room, everyone stared at Izuku. His chest was healed up, but he was still covered in blood. As soon as the brunette girl was set on the floor, she curled into a ball for a second. She took some breaths, almost digging her fingers into certain pressure points. Katsuki turned to Izuku.<br/>
“I can help you clean up. I’m the one that didn’t aim right.”<br/>
“Thanks. Here.” He was handed a container of body wipes, which he took and pulled one from the top. Izuku was cleaning his chest and abs, while Bakugo wiped down his shoulders. While they worked, Izuku noticed the stares and explained.<br/>
“I’m fine. I’m literally immortal. My organs will grow back by the end of the day and the burn scars will be gone in two days, roughly.” A quiet voice came from the purplette at the side of the room.<br/>
“You...Your heart was destroyed…”<br/>
“Yeah. It’ll grow back by the end of the day. I’ll be a bit weak, but it’s not like I haven’t lost my heart before.” More staring.<br/>
“...Like I said. I’m completely immortal. I don’t need to breathe. I don’t need to eat. I don’t need to sleep. Hell, I don’t even need to be in one piece. Both my dad and I can get blown or cut into pieces and survive. When I get into my twenties, I’ll stop aging, too.” The other students looked awed, as he looked up and smiled at the four that had shouted into the mic.<br/>
“Thanks for being concerned for me, though. That was really nice.” The four, suddenly, looked embarrassed that they’d made a scene. Mina turned to their teacher.<br/>
“Why weren’t you worried?!” The hero gave a smile.<br/>
“I’ve read his file. His quirk is described in detail.”<br/>
“Oh…” He pat her shoulder, beaming at the class.<br/>
“You all already have the mindsets of heroes! You haven’t known Izuku-shounen for a day and, yet, you were concerned for his safety!” The praise made the class turn a bit embarrassed...well...most of them. </p><p>A hand wiped over Izuku’s back.<br/>
“All you need to do is dry, now.”<br/>
“Thanks.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Living Bruises</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I've realized I never explained something.</p>
<p>Izuku doesn't add "Jutsu" to the ends of his justus, cause he finds it a waste of time and not necessary. Hidan and Kakuzu still would, since it's habit(Kakuzu used that way of speaking for 80 yrs of his life).</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The ride to the USJ was odd. He had a bad feeling. It put Bakugo off.<br/>“If Izuku’s got a bad gut feeling, we should be on our guards.” When he was looked at, confusedly, he sighed.<br/>“Izuku’s gut instincts are the most accurate warning system you can have. Whether it’s something good or bad.” Both the blonde and the greenette shared a look, knowing of two or more instances of both. Hidan and Kakuzu came to mind for the good. The others took their advice and spent the time telling the rest of the class about their quirks. From the corner of their eyes they watched Aizawa shift, as if taking the information in and preparing himself.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The rip of purple, splitting the earthen landscaping, was less of a surprise, now that the class had been warned by Izuku’s instincts. They all bunched together, so that it would be harder for them to get split up. The greenette unsealed his scythe and held it in front of him, the glint of red catching the eyes of the criminals, spilling from the purple void of mist. Something told them that they shouldn’t tangle with its wielder. </p>
<p>The warp gate collected on the top step, watching, with golden eyes, as Izuku took up a stance, in front of his classmates. His scythe was attached to the chord, as it came out of the seal in his arm, but the spools never came out of the seal. They were never supposed to. All they were there to do was to keep the cord from tangling and taking up too much room in the hammerspace of the seal. He wedged the weapon between his shoulder and his neck, before speeding through seals.<br/>“Futon: Kazekiri!(Wind Style: Wind Cutter!)” He grabbed the handle of his weapon and swiped out, creating a streak of wind. It went right through the mist the gate was made of.<br/>“Oh...That was different…” Seems like, if he has one, his solid body is smaller than the fog and easily hidden within it. Izuku flicked his eyes back, before returning them to the enemy.<br/>“Iida-kun.”<br/>“Ah!”<br/>“We’re gonna need you to get out of here and get help from the school. You know the way back, right?”<br/>“I do!” Loose green curls bounced a little.<br/>“Everyone else! We need to secure Iida-kun a path! Iida-kun! As soon as you can, make a break for it!” <br/>“Yosh!” The gate chuckled, menacingly. <br/>“Screaming your plan may not be the best option, if your enemy can hear you…” Dual toned eyes pierced the villain’s.<br/>“Who said anything about not wanting to let you hear? Frontliners! Hold position!”</p>
<p>They’d made a plan, while still on the bus.</p>
<p>Those that were close quarters fighters, or those that could deal substantial damage or protection, were shifted to front. This included Izuku, himself, Katsuki, Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, Kirishima, Shoji, and Todoroki. Those more agile were to be behind them to dole out some quick attacks, if they needed. Tsuyu, Tokoyami, Sero, Ojiro, and Jiro. The rest were to hold the back and ensure that Iida could make it out, through the doors. </p>
<p>The villain seemed, at least, a little impressed.<br/>“Oh? It’s like you knew we were coming…” Izuku smirked.<br/>“The wonders of having an incredibly accurate gut.” He lashed out with his scythe, the wind chakra on it lengthening his reach. Part of the fog separated.<br/>“Now, Sensei!” Thirteen opened their finger caps and started sucking in the warp gate, before he merged back together. The rest of them banded together, in a clump, to help each other keep him from their class president. Izuku went through seals again.<br/>“Futon: Ressenpū!(Wind Style: Violent Whirlwind!)” The air ripped from his mouth, hitting the man known as Kurogiri. Redirecting the wind back towards the students, he made Izuku cut his chakra, so the jutsu would cancel. Right as he did, he felt himself falling. There was a warp below him, sucking him towards the floor.</p>
<p>When he was spit back out, he plunged into water, finding the purple haired guy, from his class, dropping a few meters away. Swimming towards him, he pushed him up towards the surface. Izuku felt something impact his side and he pushed the other boy up, a bit faster. That was when a familiar tongue whipped forward to grab the purplette around the waist. The greenette turned back to the, shark quirked, criminal that had barreled into him. He held his breath, even if he didn’t need to. Vomiting water was <i>so</i> uncomfortable. The back of his scythe was enough to bat the man away, before he went to breach the surface. A tongue wrapped around his shoulders and pulled him to the ship’s deck.<br/>“Thanks, Asui-san.”<br/>“Please call me Tsu, Kerro.”<br/>“Ah.” He turned to the other teenager, who was still coughing.<br/>“Shinso-san. Are you alright?” He got a nod, before they heard some gasps.<br/>“H...Hitoshi…” Izuku nodded.<br/>“I have a way for us to get out of here, but it’s going to be very uncomfortable for you two. It focuses on part of my quirk. The technique may give you some minor cuts, but that’s about it.” The both nodded, before watching him run through seals again.<br/>“Futon: Daitoppa!(Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!)” The blast of air pushed the mass of criminals to the side, disorienting them and making some of them get pushed away or under with the water coming back to normal. Izuku put his hands to his classmates’ shoulders and performed a wind shunshin.</p>
<p>They appeared on the banks, indeed cut up slightly. It wasn’t bad, but they were bleeding.<br/>“Sorry. It was the only way I could think of getting out of there, quickly.” They waved him off with an ‘It’s ok’. He nodded to them and turned around, so that he could stare at the creature the villains had brought with them. He heard Iida squeeze through the doors and make a run for it. Kurogiri returned to the other man’s side. He was light blue haired and was covered in hands. It was a bit creepy. Not enough to throw him off, though. He’d seen his father get cut into pieces, while training, and was laughing, even if he was in about forty pieces. Nothing could be weirder than that. Kakuzu had stitched him up, then cuffed him in the back of the head for being stupid and letting that wind jutsu hit him. He’d let out a whiny ‘hey’, but didn’t argue further...Which, visibly, confused the other man. He still wasn’t used to the way Hidan had changed.</p>
<p>When the young man, Shigaraki Tomura by the other man’s addressing, heard that Iida had gotten away, he seemed irritated. Scratching at his neck, he tore the skin with his bitten down nails, as he threatened his companion with death. He only stopped scratching, when he broke the skin. Another scar among the sea of them around his throat. <br/>“Ah...I guess that’s it, then. Game Over.” He glanced over to them, noticing them out of the water.<br/>“Maybe we can wound All Might’s pride!” As he ran forward, Izuku stepped in front of Hitoshi and Tsuyu, lifting his arm to take the hit. He’d seen the man’s decay quirk. It was nothing against him. </p>
<p>When those fingers wrapped around the middle of his forearm, it did NOT feel good. Flaking and peeling and drying all at once. He heard a quiet chuckle, when half of his forearm came off, including his hand. He scoffed.<br/>“Now, look what you’ve done.” Intense red eyes seemed confused that he wasn’t screaming in pain. Shouldering his scythe again, he swiped his arm back again.<br/>“Give me that!” Without making it noticeable, he took a page from his ancestor, Nara Shikamaru’s, book and attached their shadows. He didn’t activate the Kagemagne yet, though. Realigning his arm, he held it there for what seemed like a minute straight, but was, in actuality, fifteen seconds. He’d figured out that concentration makes healing much faster than the involuntary way. <br/>“Wh...What the hell?!” That was when he activated the shadow possession.<br/>“I can’t move!”<br/>“Oh...But I can.” He moved forward and grabbed the man’s shirt with his thumb and index finger. Shigaraki did the same, but grazing Izuku’s chest. He turned them around, so that Tomura had his back facing the water, and, briefly, cut his control. When he turned around, the shadow made contact again and he began walking more into the middle of an open area. Before he did anything else, he threw his scythe. It flew, blades sharpened with chakra, and sliced the Nomu’s arm from its body, making it drop Aizawa’s head. With what little energy and consciousness he had left, the hero rolled out from under the creature.</p>
<p>Before Shigaraki could attack, as the possession faded, Izuku was swept off his feet, followed by the hand being ripped from the bluenette’s face. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>All Might stood there, looking absolutely pissed.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Black, White, and Red All Over</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Izuku nodded at Toshinori, before turning to his other teacher.<br/>
“Sensei.” They heard a groan, right before Aizawa lost consciousness. Green and pink eyes flicked, when he noticed Hitoshi become anxious.<br/>
“He’s your father…” The purplette gave a shaking nod.<br/>
“He...He adopted me right before school started...I…” The light greenette nodded.<br/>
“Take him to the front and keep him safe. Tsu. If you could help him…” She gave a ‘kerro’ and helped shift the raven onto her classmate’s back.<br/>
“What about you, kerro?”<br/>
“I’ll be helping All Might, as much as he’ll let me...and then some. My base quirk is best suited for taking on these kinds of things. Tsu nodded with a barely hidden shiver. Seeing his arm come off, earlier, was terrifying. That could have been her face. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>When they ran off, Izuku turned, his voice low.<br/>
“How are we gonna do this, Toshinori-san?” The blonde looked over to the Nomu. Its arm had already grown back.<br/>
“Do you know anything about it?”<br/>
“It can regenerate and take heavy blows, like nothing. It’s also command driven. It doesn’t seem to have a mind of its own. It’s, also, extremely strong and its skin is tough. The only reason I was able to cut its arm off was due to the wind chakra I put around the blades.” The hero nodded.<br/>
“And the other guy?”<br/>
“Decay quirk. Five finger contact.” He held up his arm, which was nearly healed.<br/>
“I see...Do you think you could keep him busy? I’ll be taking on the creature.” Green hair came forward, as the teenager nodded.</p>
<p>He ran out to the open again, staring directly at Shigaraki. The young man looked cautious, as he continuously checked the ground. Probably for his shadow. His gaze moved between that and the scythe that was in the student’s hands. Leaping back, he dodged a slice aimed for his chest. He’d yet to pick the hand up from the ground, letting Izuku see the man’s chapped lips and the horrible insomnia bags around his eyes. He also noticed that this guy didn’t even look ten years older than him. He was still a kid, himself!</p>
<p>Finally getting close enough, the bottom blade caught the side of Shigaraki’s face. It wouldn’t be deep enough to scar, but was plenty to get some blood. When the greenette jumped back, he smirked.<br/>
“Game over.”<br/>
“What? All you got was a superficial cut in!” Lifting the blade up, his tongue dragged over the droplet of crimson that glinted off the tip. Before everyone’s eyes, pale skin turned a deep, ink, black. White bones stood out where the front parts of his own did. The skull. Ribs. Clavicles. Arms. Fingers. Spine. And that was what could be seen above his pants. He started laughing a little, as he cut himself on the palm and squeezed. Some blood dripped to the ground and he put his foot in it to draw out Jashin’s Pentagram. As he stood in the center, his eyes peered through his bangs, staring the light bluenette right in the eyes.<br/>
“You lose.” Izuku reached to his arm seals and pulled out something metal. A cylinder. When he flicked it to the side, making it telescope out and click into place. It was a collapsible spear, like Hidan’s. As he lifted it, his opponent prepared to dodge it being thrown at it. He was caught majorly off guard, when it came down on the boy’s left arm.</p>
<p>Tomura let out a cry of pain and looked down to his own forearm. He was shaking. The fabric of his sleeve was sticking to him and darkening a bit, from dark grey...to an ominous dark brown. Ripping his sleeve up, made Kurogiri gasp from where he was. Through the young man’s arm was a hole. It was bleeding and got slightly bigger, as Izuku twisted the spear in his own arm. The bluenette cried out again, when it was ripped out. He fell to a knee, when it went into the teenager’s thigh and, therefore, his own. This repeated for a minute. The other thigh. The other forearm. Both palms. Each bicep. And each shoulder. None of them hit vital areas. Garnet eyes looked up, shaking and tinged with fear.<br/>
“Wh...What the hell are you?!” He was only stared at with luminescent, two toned, eyes.<br/>
“Had I been a villain, I would be your executioner. But, I’m not. I’m only here to keep you away from All Might...I’m not a killer.” Shigaraki couldn’t stop shaking.<br/>
“Your body’s going into shock. I made sure to not aim for places that would make you bleed out too fast. You will be weakened, due to the nerves and pressure points I cut through. You’re disabled, until you heal.” Izuku walked out of the symbol, scuffing his blood away from the dusty ground, before turning towards the rest of the building. His ritual mode faded away, leaving him spotted in holes, which were healing over, and copious amounts of blood.</p>
<p>Running towards the plaza, he looked around, before darting into The Ruins Zone. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Katsuki slammed another, detonating, palm to the side of a villain’s head, knocking him out. He’d made a fast adjustment to his costume design, even if it’d been only a week since they started school. His gauntlets were gone, being replaced by sensitive, quirkphilic, fabric gloves. They were made with an explosion-resistant weave of material, while also letting his quirk come out. His nose twitched, as a coppery scent came to his sinuses.<br/>
“Izuku?!”<br/>
“Yeah! I’m here!” He came through with a foot out, cracking into another villain’s chest.<br/>
“Holy shit! Who’d you use the ritual on?!”<br/>
“Hand dude! I should be healed in like….now!” He was right. All that was left was blood.<br/>
“C’mon! Coast is clear!” Both Katsuki and Kirishima followed him out of the ruins, being a bit blinded by the light. </p>
<p>The blonde looked around, landing on the Nomu at the same time his friend did. It was really holding its own against Toshinori. Something was wrong, though. All Might was losing steam and fast. They saw the three fingers Thirteen had held up, before shit hit the fan. He was on fumes. Sharing a look, the smirks they met each other with were enough to surround them in a slightly sinister aura.<br/>
“Thinking what I’m thinking?”<br/>
“Hell yeah!” They went running, Bakugo firing up his explosions, as Izuku blazed through seals.<br/>
“Detonation Wave!”<br/>
“Futon: Hitsuji Sasu!(Wind Style: Ram Stabbing!)” As soon as Katsuki sent his fist out, a crescent of explosions fired off, mixing with the punch of air launching from Izuku’s palm thrust. The wind turned the heat into a flame, twisting and rolling towards the creature, as they both cried out a name.<br/>
“Doragon o Jūden!(Charging Dragon!)” It was forceful enough to throw the Nomu away from the blonde, angled so that the heat and impact would be faced away from the hero. The two friends didn’t stop to celebrate. Izuku sped through seals again.<br/>
“Futon: Hayate!(Wind Style: Gale!)” Swinging his scythe forward sent a blade of wind ripping against the air, slicing the Nomu’s arm off again.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The next time he got an opening, Bakugo reminded him about his weapon. Izuku knew, exactly what to do. His chest was caved in and open a bit, but he felt adrenaline flood him.<br/>
“ALL MIGHT! GET OUT OF THERE!” The blonde looked back, shaded blue eyes widening. He recognized that stance. Leaping back, he came to a skidding stop and lifted his arms to protect his face.<br/>
“KENPOU: FUTON: SETSUDAN ATSURYOKU!(SWORD ART: WIND STYLE: CLEAVING PRESSURE!)” As the three blades of his weapon swung forward, it seemed as if miniature cyclones spiraled around them. When they came forward, hands flew over ears all over the building. It sounded like they were standing inside a plane engine! The Nomu was hit, dead on, sending it skidding, before being lifted into the air and rocketed through the roof of the building. It tore through, like it was made of fabric. When the storm died down, the building was silent...Too silent. It was like the breath had been sucked from everyone’s lungs at the same time. </p>
<p>That was when the blood, dripping from Izuku’s ears, could be seen. It wasn’t just like his eardrums had ruptured. <i>They’d burst.</i></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Kurogiri was forced to warm himself and Shigaraki away, as soon as the other heroes came. His charge was still injured from whatever the green haired boy had done to him. He was still in shock and the dirt getting into his wounds was sure to cause infection, if they didn’t get treated soon. Tomura slipped into the mist with a shaking threat.<br/>
“Th...This isn’t over…” And then they were gone.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As All Might stood tall, his head snapped to the side, as soon as he heard his successor cry out and the sound of someone slipping.<br/>
“Izuku!” When he turned, he found Katsuki with his arm in front of the greenette’s shoulders, holding onto one to keep him from faceplanting. His face was lax and his eyes lidded, the irises dull. Unconscious. The hero used the last of his energy to walk over and take a look.<br/>
“That last move took a lot of wind from him. His lungs collapsed, so his chakra had to come out through his skin. The pressure strain made his eardrum rupture. He used up all his energy. Though...I’ve never seen him blackout, before.” Bakugo sighed.<br/>
“I have. It’s pretty scary, since he doesn’t do it often. Last I saw him drop was when we were ten.” The lighter blonde lifted Izuku onto his back and nodded to his teacher, so they could get back to the front.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Needless to say, it didn’t take Hidan and Kakuzu to get to the medical wing, as soon as Katsuki called them.</p>
<p>Hidan was right next to his son, holding his hand, while he was out cold. It didn’t take longer than thirty seconds for his eyes to open.<br/>
“Tou-san?” He was enveloped in a hug, not even a second later. A pale hand went over the side of his hair.<br/>
“When Katsuki told me you were unconscious, we got here as fast as we could.” Green and pink eyes flicked over to Kakuzu, who was standing there with his hood down. His mouth mask was up over his face, since he didn’t like people staring. That was when Izuku felt something in his ears. His expression morphed into a cross between weirded out and trying not to laugh.<br/>
“Did...Did you just stitch my eardrums back together?” The brunette looked a little sheepish, but gave a tiny nod.<br/>
“Thanks. They should heal in no time, now.” The little woman, that was Recovery Girl, scurried over and took a look, finding that some finer threads were, indeed, stitching his blown eardrums closed and to the walls of his inner ears.<br/>
“Fascinating!” She turned around and beamed at Kakuzu.<br/>
“Young man! May I ask about your quirk?” The brunette’s, sudden, tinge of a blush made Hidan, Izuku, Toshinori, and Katsuki start laughing. The darker skin toned man gave them a deadpan, before crouching and pulling up his sleeve, showing the stitches in the middle of his forearm. Wrapping his hand around his other wrist, he pulled, after the threads unstitched. It showed her that his body was filled with threads. She was a bit startled by his deep, slightly gravely, voice.<br/>
“The threads that live inside me are connected to my nervous system, even when they’re severed from my body.” Izuku nodded.<br/>
“If they feel like they’re coming loose, they can tighten themselves.” Chiyo tipped her head. It truly was curious and an interesting power. Kakuzu scratched his head.<br/>
“I’m...also not a young man.” </p>
<p>Izuku looked to Toshinori, knowing Recovery Girl had to know about his power and his successor. He nudged Hidan’s arm and flicked his gaze between them and the nurse, some hand signals catching Kakuzu’s attention. Ninja sign. More specifically <i>old</i> ANBU sign. He stilled a moment, before meeting Hidan’s glance with a nod. If she knew about Toshinori, they were sure she could handle another secret.</p>
<p>The greenette sighed.<br/>
“Alright. This is gonna be one heavy story, Recovery Girl-san. You should...sit.” She hopped up to her chair and waited to be told. </p>
<p>By the end, her, gorgeous, brown eyes were wide on her face.<br/>
“Woah…” Kakuzu pulled his mask down, showing her the thicker threads holding his cheeks closed. After a minute or so, she gave him a little smile.<br/>
“I really don’t understand why you’d wear that mask. You look very handsome!” Not expecting the praise, a rosy dust came to his face again.<br/>
“Ah...Thank you.” She nodded and turned to Izuku.<br/>
“So...This wind manipulation you have. What exactly is the catalyst?”<br/>
“My body can only contain a certain type of chakra. Wind chakra. I’ve been able to take it and almost completely null out the cutting and force effects, so that it can be used in lieu of basic chakra. It’s how I use the seals on my arms and the two on my back.”<br/>
“Two?”<br/>
“One’s for if I need to carry the scythe and the other is a gravity seal. It makes my own gravity five times that of a normal person. Think of weights, but on steroids. I’m not heavy to other people, since it reacts only with my perception of my own weight.”<br/>
“Very clever. There was another thing the other students said you did to put one of the villains out of commission.”<br/>
“Since Tou-san is my ancestor, I was able to unlock the blessing Jashin-sama blessed him with, since it’s more connected to will and pain than anything else.” The hand not still holding his father’s was wrapped around his pendant, squeezing it, as if in idle prayer. It was let go, as he reached to his ears. He was intent on scratching a little, before waiting. The threads crawled out and to his finger, showing that they were half a hair’s width in size. He handed them back to Kakuzu.<br/>
“Thanks. That felt so weird, though.” That, dark brown nailed, hand ruffled his curls, making the teenager chuckle.<br/>
“Heard you put some of those combo attacks to use.” He smiled.<br/>
“Yeah. We used the Chasing Dragon move.” Katsuki smirked.<br/>
“The one that destroyed his ears was the Cleaving Pressure move he made. It was so cool, but DAMN was it loud!” Chiyo chuckled at their antics, before Izuku noticed the look in her eyes.<br/>
“Ah. I have to practice with my quirk on a deserted island. We use the desert one that’s in the middle of nowhere.” She nodded, having been told of the other islands he had visited, in his search for Kakuzu, even if he’d not known it at the time.</p>
<p>They all shared a quiet laugh, knowing that the year should be ramping up, sooner or later. It was about to get very exciting and they could tell the ball was to be set rolling soon.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Cement Walls</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>holy shit guys I'm so sorry this took so long to update. My brain screeched to a stop.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As they waited for the festival to start, Izuku heard his phone go off twice, seconds before he was about to put it in the locker. Looking at the screen, he chuckled.<br/>“Izuku?” He looked up and into the red irises of his friend.<br/>“Tou-san’s in the audience and Kakuzu’s in the infirmary, setting up to watch the first part of the festival.” Bakugo snickered.<br/>“I feel bad for whoever’s sat around your dad.” The greenette bit his lip a little, trying not to laugh.<br/>“Me too.” Kirishima looked over.<br/>“Your dad? I saw two guys run into the school, after the USJ. Was it them?”<br/>“Oh. Yeah. The albino one is my dad.” The redhead stared at him.<br/>“He looks more like he could be your brother!” That made Izuku lose control and start snickering.<br/>“He’s my cousin. Like...I don’t even know where he sits on the tree, but he adopted me. He’s, also, immortal.” He got a sharp grin.<br/>“He sounds like a good dad.”<br/>“Damn straight!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When they were called out, by class, the whole first year gathered on the platform. Midnight gestured to their class.<br/>“The representative for Class 1-A will give a speech. The representative is Bakugo Katsuki!” The ashen blonde took a deep breath and walked over to the podium, looking a touch nervous.<br/>“Uh...There’s not really much I want to say...nor have to say, for that matter. I just want to have fun and see what my peers have to offer, in terms of drive and to satiate my curiosity about their quirks. I hope no one gets seriously hurt and we can all walk away from this, either with stronger bonds or newly made friendships or, even, a new friendly rivalry or two. As per the school’s motto, we all should go beyond our limits. We should all show what we’re made of, without making enemies of each other. We need to build ourselves and our peers up, not knock them down! Hold each other up on our shoulders! If I have to or need to, I will hold the weight of all my peers...all the people that depend on me...on my shoulders, alone! I will go beyond what is normal or what is expected of me and I hope you all agree! I hope you agree that we all will go beyond! PLUS ULTRA!” </p>
<p>The whole stadium roared.</p>
<p>
  <i>
    <b>”PLUS ULTRA!”</b>
  </i>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Izuku smiled from where he was standing, clapping along with the rest of the people in the arena. He was super proud of his friend. Ever since his parents were killed, the greenette had seen Katsuki change for the better. He saw the problems in himself and was determined to fix them. He saw that other people had problems and ambitions of their own. He could, finally, see that not everyone was out to sabotage him and were just trying to climb the same mountain as him, at the same speed. He knew, now, that, should he help boost others, they may reach back and offer a hand to help him join them, up higher.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The race was announced and Izuku watched the others rush off, Bakugo giving him a two fingered salute. He only chuckled and took a step up into the air. He walked higher and higher, until he was above the other students. Getting through the pack was easy, he just went over them. It was a chakra exercise based in wind chakra. It was like water walking but exponentially harder. It was the same concept, but had to do with the unpredictability of the wind and being able to feel if it was going to change. </p>
<p>Reaching the huge bots from the entrance exam, he sped through seals.<br/>“Futon: Atsugai!(Wind Style: Pressure Damage!)” He angled his attack, so that it would only rip through the head of the robot in front of him. He kept walking and dodged the arms coming for him, just as he saw one of them freeze over and go falling. Todoroki was right behind him. He heard explosions and knew Katsuki was using his, modified, sorta-flight to keep up. He really wanted to laugh. The guy looked like Ironman! He’d been told that the comics had inspired it. </p>
<p>Katsuki laughed, watching his friend just walk over the pitfall. He heard someone cry out.<br/>“Oh! Not fair!”<br/>“It’s part of his quirk. It’s entirely fair!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When Izuku reached the minefield, he sighed and kept walking, knowing he was way ahead of the bulk of the contestants. He dropped to the ground, on the other side, and just kept going. When he made it to the stadium, he was met with cheers.</p>
<p>“COMING INTO FIRST PLACE IS IZUKU OF CLASS 1-A!”</p>
<p>The greenette nearly toppled to his ass, laughing, when he heard Hidan shout.<br/>“YEAH! THAT’S MY SON!!!” He held his head and waved to his father. Midnight looked confused.<br/>“He...looks more like he’d be your brother.”<br/>“He’s a distant cousin. Adopted me, after my parents were killed, six years ago.”<br/>“Oh!” Her voice dropped a bit, so that she was mumbling.<br/>“He’s kinda cute.” Izuku bit his lip.<br/>“He’s already got a massive ego. He’s trying to be better, but...that would add fuel to the fire…” She held down a cracking up grin.<br/>“What about that other guy that came tearing through the school, after the USJ? The brunette one. Is he also your dad?” A sly look passed over her student’s face.<br/>“He’s Tou-san’s friend and our housemate. Tou-san’s kinda confused about his feelings. Always has been. His friend’s helping Recovery Girl.” He found tourmaline eyes flicking to his own.<br/>“<i>That’s</i> his friend? Holy...Damn...I nearly flirted with him.” That made Izuku snort a laugh.<br/>“That would be a hilarious sight. He doesn’t understand why anyone finds him attractive.” </p>
<p>The other students came out of the course and Midnight switched gears to explain the next part. The cavalry battle.</p>
<p>He paled when he realized he had ten MILLION points on his head. Holy fuck! It was like he was back in Hidan and Kakuzu’s time! He had a fucking bounty on his head and was being hunted. For fuck’s sake!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He steadied himself and turned his head, when a head of brunette hair came into his field of view.<br/>“Uraraka-san?”<br/>“A-Ah...May I be on your team?”<br/>“I have the biggest target on my head…”<br/>“That doesn’t matter to me. I want to help you in any way I can! I think we make a good team.” He smiled a touch and looked around.<br/>“Hmm...Ah!” He walked over and cleared his throat.<br/>“Tokoyami-san?” Fumikage turned to him.<br/>“Ah?”<br/>“Would you like to be on our team?” He looked surprised.<br/>“You...want me on your team?”<br/>“Yeah. I mean you have a powerful quirk and you look very cooperative and flexible in terms of working with people.” That made the shorter smile.<br/>“Thank you.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The final person they needed was a rider.</p>
<p>There was a girl just standing and looking around. She had shoulder length grey hair and blue eyes, her skin very pale and her arms bent kind of like how Tsu does sometimes. He’d heard of her, through Toshinori, from the lessons her class had with him. Yanagi Reiko, he believed. Her quirk lets her, telekinetically, manipulate objects. While it wasn’t rare to have telekinesis, to have it as strong as she did was impressive.<br/>“Hello.” She turned to him, slightly startled.<br/>“Oh. Hello.”<br/>“Would you like to be a part of our team?”<br/>“Why?”<br/>“You’re just standing out here and...um...I’ve heard of you. Your quirk is interesting and I think it would be a valuable asset.”<br/>“There are plenty of others that have much more powerful quirks than I do…”<br/>“And? If we focus on power, alone, heroes become stereotyped as all brawn and no brain.” She just blinked at him.<br/>“Yanagi Reiko.” He shook her hand.<br/>“Izuku. No family name.”<br/>“No...family name?”<br/>“I used to be called Midoriya.” She blinked sharply.<br/>“Oh...I heard of that...It may be late, but my condolences.” It was nice, but there was no need. He was glad his parents had died. It had freed him.<br/>“Thank you. Would you give us the honor of having you on our team?”</p>
<p>She nodded and followed the greenette over to the others, where they introduced themselves.<br/>“My quirk lets me telekinetically manipulate things with a maximum weight of approximately one person.” Uraraka nodded.<br/>“I can negate gravity on things and people I touch with all five finger pads. Too much strain causes nausea.” Tokoyami let Dark Shadow come out.<br/>“This is Dark Shadow. He’s strong in the dark but is wild and uncontrollable, while, in the light, he’s more controllable, but weaker. He’s solid, so he can attack and defend.” When the girl turned to Izuku, he took a breath in.<br/>“I...My abilities are very strange. I can manipulate wind, seal things into myself, manipulate my shadow, and I’m completely immortal.”<br/>“I-Immortal?”<br/>“Yes. I can be injured lethally and survive. Poisons do nothing for me. Midnight-sensei’s quirk can affect me but not much. I can have limbs severed and put them back to myself, where they reattach themselves.” Her, tired-looking, eyes went wide.<br/>“Wh...What the…”<br/>“My healing factor is insane. For smaller parts, like fingers and toes, it takes less than two minutes. For larger parts...lungs...heart...It takes an hour.” Reiko just stared at him.<br/>“That’s...a-a little scary…” He nodded.<br/>“I know. It’s why I want to be an underground hero. Anyways, I was thinking to have you as the rider, so you can use your quirk better. Uraraka-kun, can you lighten all of us, besides yourself?”<br/>“Oh. Yes, but why besides myself?”<br/>“We don’t need you getting nauseous and you’re not heavy enough to cause drag, unlike me.” His little self jab made them crack smiles.</p>
<p>He continued.<br/>“I’ll be up front to take the brunt of attacks, while using my shadow and wind manipulations. Tokoyami-san. I think you’d work best at back, as rear defense, while Uraraka-kun will be by your side, helping to throw people off balance with her quirk.” They all agreed.<br/>“That’s a good plan. How are we going to get into position?” Smiling a bit, they turned to Tokoyami, who let Dark Shadow out. The shadow being just smiled back and picked the 1-B student off her feet to put her into place. She looked a little startled, but realized that Dark Shadow had a good grip on her and wasn’t about to drop her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She tied the bandana to her head, totaling up their points to a whopping 10,000,400.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“START!”</p>
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<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Road Rash</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Quickly, they rushed to the side, being helped along by Izuku’s wind.</p><p>The greenette latched his shadow to the rest of his, mobile, teammates and made a wide skate to the right, taking them all with him. </p><p>As a team went for them, he pulled one hand to the front, making half a Tori hand sign.<br/>
“Futon: Hayate(Wind Release: Storm)!” Letting out a sharp breath made a squall of wind tear through the air. It hit the team, dead on, and made them close their eyes and the rider put their hands up to block their face. There was no edge to the wind, since they weren’t his enemies.</p><p>A wave of glue passed in front of him, catching his chest and one of his legs. He hissed.<br/>
“Dark Shadow-san! I’m gonna need you to support me for a few minutes, while my leg grows back!” Warily, the shadow creature wrapped around Izuku’s thighs, as he called out.<br/>
“Look away if you have a weak stomach!”</p><p>The others were confused, until he connected his team’s shadows again and made them all, collectly, jump back with a blast of air…</p><p>…<i>Ripping his leg clean off at the knee and flaying the, surface, skin of his chest.</i></p><p> </p><p>He cursed.<br/>
“Shit...Sorry about the blood. I’ll be fine.” True to his word, his chest was already healing with that, fluid and water-like, skin crawling over his muscle structure.<br/>
“My leg will take a minute. Hold on.” He launched them over a group of students, who were still in shock, and Reiko nicked some of their bandanas.<br/>
“Izuku-san...That’s...That was a little scary...seeing you rip your own leg off…”<br/>
“Sorry.”<br/>
“Can you...still feel pain?” As his radius and part of his fibula started growing back, he grunted.<br/>
“Yeah, but I’m used to it.”<br/>
“Used to it?”<br/>
“I’ve trained my quirk from when I was little. I’m an insanely clumsy person, so pain means nothing to me, unless it’s really bad. Meaning injuries that put intense strain and shock into my body. Something that would make someone else go into shock is nothing.” </p><p>His ankle started forming, as she seemed to lose the wetness in her mouth.<br/>
“What...the…”<br/>
“My dad, who is really my cousin, has the same base quirk I do. He’s immortal, also. Should you see him, you’ll see what I mean. He looks like he could be my brother, instead of my dad.”</p><p>Let alone grandfather, but he didn’t say that.</p><p> </p><p>The complex bones and digits of his foot grew, supernaturally, fast.<br/>
“You can let go, now, Dark Shadow-san. I can move now.”<br/>
“But-You-”<br/>
“I don’t need muscles or nerves to move.”<br/>
“Ah…” He let go of him and, indeed, Izuku was able to move. They ran around again, while the nerves grew back and the muscles followed suit, starting to coil and snake to recreate his calf. </p><p>Looking around, he felt Dark Shadow block an attack and swing back to get a team off their rear. The greenette found himself staring into the face of a brunette with dark, oval, eyes.<br/>
“Let me guess. You’re the shield, too. But yours has to do with an emitter quirk.” He was blinked at.<br/>
“How…”<br/>
“Your stance and your expression. You aren’t worried about your hands being occupied, so I know you don’t need them for your quirk.” Tsurababa blinked and tightened his grip on his rider.<br/>
“Eh?”<br/>
“This kid knows too much...I haven’t even used my quirk yet and he knows I don’t need my hands for it.”<br/>
“That was fast.”</p><p>His skin was fluid, as it covered up the muscles of his foot, capping off with his toenails. It was unnerving, which made Izuku curse internally. This was why he was wary about becoming a hero.</p><p> </p><p>As Monoma swiped for Reiko, Izuku let out a blast of wind chakra, which forced them apart from each other.<br/>
“Hm...I wonder why you aren’t on top...Your quirk is the most powerful…” Green and pink eyes met violet.<br/>
“She’s one of the lightest...and her quirk would be wasted if she were to have to carry someone.” Izuku just grinned and pulled his hand forward.<br/>
“Futon: Kazegakure no Jutsu(Wind Release: Hidden Wind Technique)!” </p><p>Suddenly, they’d disappeared, as if the quartet had turned invisible.</p><p>The only ways to know where they were were to see their shadow, which was difficult since they were moving so fast, or feel them run by, thus displacing the air. </p><p>Once the technique wore off, they’d amassed a couple more headbands.</p><p> </p><p>A spray of ice cut them off at the edge of the stage, showing that Todoroki had arrived with his right side active. Izuku scoffed internally. The chimera had an aversion to using his left side. It was understandable, seeing who his father was, but he ran a risk of getting himself or others killed if he wasn’t willing to use both sides.</p><p>Frostbite started forming on his shoulder, where the ice clipped him. The damaged cells started replacing themselves, instantly. He let out a breath and watched Dark Shadow trying to keep them away. Kaminari was making use of the light his quirk produced, weakening the shadow being to the point that he didn’t want to keep fighting. He retreated into Tokoyami again, as Shoto lashed out, making Izuku throw his foot up to break the ice coming for them. His heel came back down, a faint glow of wind chakra around it.</p><p> </p><p>“ONE MINUTE REMAINING!”</p><p>Iida told his team to hold on.<br/>
“Recipero-” His engines started up, just as the greenette had his wind chakra hold up the rest of his, own, team. His hands came forward in a Rat seal, his shadow launching away and stretching to catch Todoroki’s team, collectively, just as Tenya growled.<br/>
“-Burst!”</p><p>Izuku stiffened himself and held the seal solid. Protrusions wrapped up their legs and stomachs, holding them in place, while more, hand-shaped, ends kept their arms immobile. None of them could do anything but be paralyzed. Shoto tried to use his ice, but his instincts made his left side flare, briefly, with tongues of flame. The greenette let out a breath, sweat beading at his temples.</p><p>“Shadow Strangle success…”</p><p> </p><p>“AND TIME! IT’S OVER!”</p><p> </p><p>Izuku let go and helped the others down from their formation, as Todoroki’s team looked perturbed. Momo shivered.<br/>
“That felt like real hands!” The greenette scratched his head.<br/>
“Sorry.”<br/>
“No. It’s fine. I was taken off guard...I think we all were…” The other three nodded. Iida looked to be sore in the legs.<br/>
“You...You were able to hold me back, when I used Recipero...Amazing…”</p><p> </p><p>“IN FIRST PLACE IS TEAM IZUKU! IN SECOND PLACE IS TEAM TODOROKI! IN THIRD WE HAVE TEAM BAKUGO! AND IN FOURTH IS TEAM TETSU-HUH?! HOW DID TEAM SHINSO GET SO MANY POINTS?!”</p><p> </p><p>Both Ojiro and Shoda decided to drop out, having suffered sprains and a dislocated shoulder on Shoda’s part. The blonde had started feeling like his vision was tunneling, so pulled himself from the rest of the festival. </p><p>The names went into the brackets and showed just who was against who.</p><p> </p><p>Izuku glanced to the side, meeting purple, as he found himself matched up with Shinso Hitoshi.</p><p> </p><p>Both had their strengths and weaknesses.</p><p>Care was in order.</p>
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<a name="section0016"><h2>16. The Dead Do Not Make Shadows</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He stood before Shoto, dragged into a nook in the wall.<br/>“What do you need?” Heterochromatic eyes clashed against another set of bicolored irises.<br/>“I...have only felt a presence, like yours, twice before...It is one of pure determination to do the right thing...Your quirk is strong…” Izuku held up a hand.<br/>“We have an eavesdropper. Katsuki. You might as well join us.”</p><p>The ash blonde looked sheepish at being caught and walked out, peering down, guiltily. The chimera shrugged a little.<br/>“I won’t have to track you down, later. Good. I’ve only felt this kind of presence and determination from you two...and from All Might…” His eyes peered back up.<br/>“What I’m trying to ask is...Are either of you, actually, All Might’s secret lovechild, or something?”</p><p> </p><p>Both Katsuki and Izuku shared a look, before breaking into laughter. The blonde’s wheezes turned into coughs, as he tried to calm himself. The greenette collected himself enough to respond.<br/>“No. No. My biological father was killed. His dad is still alive and he has a picture of him on his phone, if you don’t believe us.”<br/>“Killed?”<br/>“Uh...Yeah...I was adopted by my cousin...somewhere in the tree, but close enough that we have similar quirks.” Grey and teal eyes narrowed.<br/>“You’re...lying…” </p><p>Ok. How the fuck?</p><p>A green brow raised.<br/>“What do you mean?”<br/>“You’re hiding it, but there’s a small twitch in your face. You’re lying.” Izuku pinched the bridge of his nose.<br/>“Alright. Fine. I am. How do I know you won’t go around telling people, should I explain?”</p><p>Shoto put a hand to his scar and delved into his backstory. About his mother and what demon his father was to him and his siblings.</p><p> </p><p>Green and pink eyes went wide.<br/>“Holy fucking shit. Alright...I guess a secret for a secret, then…” He rubbed a hand down his face.<br/>“When I was nine, I followed a myth and a story to an island...More specifically, it was one down by the Ogasawara Islands.” Shoto’s eyes went wide. That was so far away!<br/>“There were deer all over the island, who told me who I was and why I could walk on their land without risk of attack. I’m...a part of an ancient clan, called the Nara. A clan that could manipulate shadows, had incredible IQ, and could communicate with the deer on their lands. On that island was who I was looking for. A man who killed his killer’s teacher. A man who was entombed under rubble and in a hole, scattered in pieces. I spent a day digging him out and putting him back together again. There was a scroll that I found, inscribed with seals, that allowed me to test my blood against his. It showed that he was my 144th great grandfather. The island grew closer to the shore, where I live with him. He adopted me. The infamous Immortal Hidan.”</p><p>The chimera looked startled out of his skin. There was no twitch in that. It was all true. That name…<br/>“The...Immortal Hidan? Wasn’t he a wanted criminal, back in the shinobi times?!”<br/>“Yes.”<br/>“How did he survive four thousand years?!”<br/>“He’s literally immortal, like me. Though he doesn’t have a quirk. He was born long before the mutation started. He was blessed by Jashin-sama to be his avatar in this world.”<br/>“So...The scythe you use...It’s not just a copy?”<br/>“No. It’s the real thing.”</p><p>Todoroki let out a breath.<br/>“Incredible...What about the other man? The one that came with Hidan-san, after the USJ?” His expression morphed.<br/>“He...looked familiar, as well, but...I don’t want to be wrong.” Izuku sighed.<br/>“Kakuzu of The Five Hearts.”<br/>“Holy shit...How...Is he immortal, too?” The greenette rubbed an eye.<br/>“Sort of. I found him on the island he died on, after Uzumaki Naruto and Hatake Kakashi, those famous story heroes, killed him. I...had a gut feeling. I tried to use one of my hearts to bring him back...and it worked.” The taller stared at him with widened eyes.<br/>“You...g-gave him yours?!”<br/>“I did. As you’ve seen, I can survive without vital organs, indefinitely. The heart I gave him is immortal and, should he protect that heart as if it were his last, he can live as indefinite a life as myself and Dad.” <br/>“Woah…”</p><p>There was a moment of silence, before the question dropped.<br/>“Hey...How did you...even unlock your quirk? Not every kid goes around getting lethally injured on a day-to-day basis…” Katsuki went to answer, when Izuku beat him to it.<br/>“Oh. I got hit by a semi, when I was five. It ruptured my heart, when it hit me, and I was fine. I remember feeling my organs regrowing and my arm and leg growing back, since I wanted them to heal and get rid of the pain so badly.” Dual toned eyes peered back at him, before he spoke something that made Katsuki jolt hard.</p><p>“You’re lying again.”</p><p>Izuku just stared, unblinking and emotionless. The ash blonde turned to his friend.<br/>“Izuku? You told me you were hit by a semi...You...lied to me?” The freckled teen tipped his head down a little, his hair falling into his eyes.<br/>“A little white lie to cover up a pitch black truth…”<br/>“Please...Please tell me what really happened!” Pink and green eyes snapped up.<br/>“I starved to death.” Both of his classmates jumped.<br/>“S...Starved? B...But you...Auntie Inko...Uncle Hisashi...they would’ve fed you, had you needed to eat-” He got a harsh scoff and pissed off sneer.<br/>“They did nothing for me! They...They locked me in my closet of a room for weeks, until my quirk kicked in! I was five fucking years old!” Tears burned down his pale face, as he started shivering and covering his face with his hands. Years of trauma came spilling out.<br/>“They...They used to hit me...Burn me...Cut me...They tormented me...and went further than they should ever go...j-just because I was a freak in their eyes! I was unnatural and...and I...I was never their son to them!” </p><p>He felt and tasted the bile that rose in his throat, gagging on its repulsive, acrid, flavor. </p><p>Katsuki could only stare at him with his hand over his mouth.<br/>“They were...demons...What parents abuse their kid?! What the actual fuck?!” Breaking from his shock, the blonde stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Izuku’s waist.</p><p>The greenette gagged and sobbed.<br/>“I...I...also l-lied about their deaths…”<br/>“Their deaths? They were killed by a criminal that broke in...weren’t they?” He shook his head.<br/>“Hidan followed me the night I found him. He saw what they were doing to me and killed them to save me...He barely knew me…”</p><p> </p><p>“I may have barely known you in real time, but...It felt like I had known you for many years…”</p><p> </p><p>Tourmaline eyes looked back and up, finding a head of silver hair peering around the corner. Izuku choked on his breaths and reached out to him.<br/>“D...Dad…” </p><p>Swooping in, Hidan brought his son to him and held his head to his shoulder.<br/>“It’s alright. You’ve bottled it for far too long. Let it all out, like you do for me…”</p><p> </p><p>As the tears flowed and Izuku gripped the man around the ribs so hard that he felt a rib crack, Hidan turned to the other two with a blank stare that had matched the greenette’s.<br/>“So...Katsuki. Now that you know, what do you see when you look at me?” His answer was instantaneous, in contrast to what the man had expected. It was, also, a surprise.<br/>“...A hero.”<br/>“What?”<br/>“You saved Izuku...What else would I see?” Albino eyes blinked.<br/>“A murderer. A...demon.”<br/>“How could I see a demon in you? Do you have a tail or multiple? Do you exude Yokai? No...You’re a savior...An Angel of Jashin.” </p><p>That made an involuntary smile pull at Hidan’s face, as spider’s silk tears cut down his cheeks.<br/>“Thank you.”</p><p> </p><p>“IZUKU AND SHINSO HITOSHI PLEASE COME TO THE STAGE!”</p><p> </p><p>Once they stood in front of each other, Midnight brought her whip down.<br/>“Begin!”</p><p>Not even letting Hitoshi speak, Izuku ran forward, hands in seals, already. His fingers tapped his opponent’s throat.<br/>“Futon: Chinmoku no Kaze(Wind Release: Silenced Winds)!” The purplette found himself unable to speak and looked up, a blatant ‘oh shit’ expression flashing across his face. He put up his arms to block the axe kick aimed for his face, before getting a foot to the stomach, that made him back up. A bit of saliva dripped from his mouth, which he wiped away. </p><p>He saw something moving, on the ground, and jumped away to keep that shadow from touching his own. He saw what that did to a group of people, let alone ONE. </p><p>Hitoshi was so focused on moving that he didn’t realize that Izuku was no longer standing in his original position. He felt his brain jostle, when a foot cracked into the side of his head, sending him sprawling. He couldn’t get up fast enough. His arm was twisted behind his back and a knee ground into his kidneys. He let out a, muted, cry of surprise, when Izuku picked him up by the legs and, pretty much, threw him from the ring.</p><p>As soon as he landed, his voice returned to him.<br/>“OOF!”</p><p> </p><p>“Shinso Hitoshi is out of the ring! Izuku moves on to the next round!”</p><p> </p><p>Up in the commentator box, Mic just stared down at the field.<br/>“Wow...That was...quick...and brutal.” Aizawa nodded.<br/>“Izuku is known to be quick on his feet and very efficient. He tends to not rely on his quirk too much, thinking of them more like support items than his main source of attack.”<br/>“Speaking of his quirk...It seems very...How do I put this...um...patchwork?”<br/>“He has three abilities, that we know of, that are rolled into one quirk.”<br/>“Super regeneration has to be one, seeing what happened during the Cavalry Battle…” Aizawa glanced to his friend.<br/>“Technically, it’s not. He’s actually immortal, which the regeneration was grouped in with.”<br/>“I-Immortal?”<br/>“Yes. During one of their first training exercises, he had his chest caved in, destroying his heart and lungs. His organs regrew by the end of the next period.” The blonde whistled.<br/>“Wow! Kind of scary but really useful!” <br/>“Indeed.”</p><p> </p><p>The next fight Izuku actually tuned in for was Iida’s with Reiko.</p><p>“YANAGI REIKO AND IIDA TENYA! PLEASE COME TO THE STAGE!”</p><p> </p><p>The girl stood with her arms bent like usual, while the bluenette gave her a little smile.<br/>“Let’s do our bests.” She nodded in agreement, as the hero brought her arm down.</p><p>“Begin!”</p><p>Reiko put her hands out and attempted to make him lose his balance, by pulling at the engines in his left leg. He was too heavy for her to try to throw him, full body, from the ring. That wasn’t possible, so she had to look for other options. She’d thought about pulling his glasses off his face, but discarded it. That was just a dick move.</p><p>She somersaulted out of the way, when he came for her, trying to get her to lose her balance. The silverette put her hand out and yanked his, standing, leg out from under him, making him fall into a roll to right himself.</p><p>He darted back at her, running circles to keep her line of sight off of him in an attempt to disorient her.</p><p>Tenya felt something hit his face, blocking his sight, as it wrapped around his head and made him stop to pull it off. It was...a PE jacket? Taken off guard, he was knocked off his feet, when a body slammed into his pelvis with the back of a shoulder. </p><p>Getting his footing back, he found Reiko standing and panting slightly, wearing a back sports bra that zipped up like a halter top. She was holding her shoulder, looking like she’d jostled the joint.<br/>“You...used your top as a distraction…” She just peered at him with blue eyes, bordered with sleepless rings. </p><p>He watched her hold her hand off her shoulder, before it pulled out and down, a pop ringing through his ears. Dislocated.</p><p> </p><p>The next time he ran at her, she tried to dash to the side, when he grabbed her wrist and dragged her with him to the edge of the ring. She found herself outside the line and sighed, knowing she was disqualified.</p><p> </p><p>“YANAGI REIKO IS OUT OF BOUNDS! IIDA TENYA MOVES ON TO THE NEXT ROUND!”</p><p> </p><p>The 1-B student started getting to her feet, when a hand was held out to her. She looked up and found her opponent there.<br/>“Thank you.”<br/>“You’re welcome.” She got to her feet, before seeing Iida holding out her uniform top. She took it, but didn’t put it back on. A bruise was starting to form at her shoulder joint, which made her grimace.<br/>“Are you alright?” She nodded.<br/>“Just a dislocation.”<br/>“It was amazing that you were able to reset it on your own. May I ask how you did it?”<br/>“Oh...My quirk allows me to telekinetically manipulate objects below a certain weight. I use it on my arm to relocate it.”<br/>“Incredible! I’m surprised you didn’t use your quirk on my glasses or on my hair…” She gave a ghosting smile.<br/>“I believed that would have been, what others would call, ‘a dick move’.” The bluenette gave a little laugh, before helping her off the stage, so that she could go to Recovery Girl to get healed.</p><p> </p><p>The next fight that caught Izuku’s attention came up last.</p><p> </p><p>“BAKUGO KATSUKI AND URARAKA OCHAKO! PLEASE COME TO THE STAGE!”</p>
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